


We Did Good Work

by JustSomeFiction



Category: Good Girls (TV), Graceland (TV)
Genre: Cross Over, FBI, Good girls, Graphic Scenes, Johnny Tuturro Centered, Mike and Johnny's friendship had so much potential for season 4, Multi, Post No Old Tigers, Post Season 3 Graceland, This is probably going to be a long ass story, graceland tv, organised crime, sort of a crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:15:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustSomeFiction/pseuds/JustSomeFiction
Summary: Their lives were ripped apart and thrown across Graceland. Being forced to stick together, they learn to survive and rebuild, but overtime secrets are brought to light and decisions have to be made. Years later, with their lives changed and old and new threats surrounding them, they need to pull through to finally be free of everything they've done.
Relationships: Johnny Tuturro/Mike Warren, Lucia Solano/Johnny Tuturro
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with another story. This time with more of a plan. I recently found Graceland, through Good Girls - I always saw Manny Montana play guest roles in popular TV series and always wondered why the hell is no one giving this man recognition, I honestly hope he gets more recognition for his work in Season 4 and screen time, because honestly, his acting is a pleasure to watch. Anyway, I researched all his other roles and found Graceland and Conviction, two shows that had a lot of potential in them, so instead of being upset that it ended, I decided to write my own story of what happens next. 
> 
> Enjoy 
> 
> x
> 
> P.S Hope everyone is safe.

**Chapter One: What Comes Next**

**Graceland, 2014**

He found Johnny sitting next to the broken Christmas tree, broken shards of Charlie’s cheap ornaments laying all over the carpet. Walking towards him, Mike sat down on the other side of the fallen tree. Neither one of them spoke, both immersed in their own thoughts, about what happened in the last year and what was going to happen now. They sat in silence for a while, until Johnny let out a sigh, his breath shaking as it came out.

“Jakes is gone,” his voice was raw and shaky, “he took the money and bounced,” Mike hung his head as Johnny told him what happened, “said this house is just filled with liars and backstabbers,” his head hung between his shoulders in defeat, “I tried talking him out of it but now I feel like he was right.”

“I signed the report,” Mike exhaled loudly, “I signed the report and gave Logan a list of demands,” he glanced over at Johnny, looking for any sign of comprehension, but his friend just stared ahead, so he continued, “we put Gusti on a bus, we don’t take the stand and he takes credit for this entire operation.”

Johnny just nodded, still not looking at Mike. His mind still racing. In all honesty his thoughts haven’t settled since Mexico. This whole situation with Jakes and Courtney just hit too close to home. Should he have done the same, should he have given up everything? Deep down he knew the answer was no, he had his mother, his family here in Graceland, even his wayward gangbanger brother, he couldn’t leave them behind. However, part of him knew he didn’t want to leave her alone in this world either, but the good man in him (the one she saw) won and he let her go. There were days after the trial where he wanted to call her, use his resources to track her down, even prevent her from leaving the country, but he knew that wasn’t fair on her. She deserved to find herself and wear the comedy mask for once. Then Jakes decided to do exactly what he warned Johnny not to and his thoughts were all over the place.

“I always thought we did good work here,” he started, finally glancing at Mike, “we were putting the bad guys away and coming home to good people, who keep us grounded, but all this time, we were just-,“

“Manipulated into thinking that we were the good guys?” Mike finished off his sentence with a question.

“Yeah,” Johnny sighed, rolling his shoulders, the pain from crashing into the tree slowly fading, “what happens now?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m just so sick of all this shit man,” Mike has never heard John sound so defeated. He was the one who pulled everyone together, even when they all were at each other’s throats. But now, his voice was hard and low, he was fed up – he was the glue and heart of Graceland but also the punching bag, helped everyone out but was always the one that got yelled at or ridiculed and the one who Paul manipulated the most, because he could. Something told Mike that all ended the moment he put two slugs in Briggs’ leg. Throughout this entire ordeal Johnny was the only one who was thinking straight if Mike was honest. He did things because it was the right thing to do, he helped because he wanted to and because he saw the rest of them as family. If Mike was being completely truthful, Johnny is the one person besides Paige, who always brought him back to Graceland, they didn’t always see eye to eye, but since the start there was something about this man that made him feel at ease and welcomed. They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Johnny started speaking again.

“Graceland was home for so long,” he sniffed, “the people, the place, the work, it was fulfilling,” he shook his head, “now it feels as though this place is just sucking the life out of all of us man. You know, I took this job because of Briggs, I looked up to him, I would have taken a bullet for him,” he chuckled humourlessly at the irony, “now I feel like everything I’ve ever done was a lie ya know.”

Mike could relate, he too was captured by the idea of working with Paul Briggs, then reality set in when he started picking up on the manipulation, the secrets and sketchy dealings. It was a hard pill to swallow. The worst part being that none of them would be safe if they didn’t protect Paul. All of them were too deep into all his schemes and lies, especially him and Johnny.

“You’re not the only one man,” he looked over at his friend, who slowly nodded his head, finally looking over at him.

“What happens now?”

“Nothing good.”

They fell into a tense silence and sat amongst the ruins of the Christmas tree until the front door opened and the remaining occupants of Graceland walked into the broken house.

**Classified location, six years later**

Johnny walked into the house, pulling his gun out of his jeans and placing it in the coat closet (the gun closet as Charlie dubbed it). He smiled as he heard the laughter coming from the den, seems like it was a full house tonight. Rolling his shoulders, he made his way further into the house, hands stuffed into his pockets and picked up on the bits of conversation that was drifting from the den.

“You think he’s still busy with his meeting,” came Mike’s voice.

“Maybe,” Jakes, “you know he enjoys dragging out jobs.” That he did.

“Johnny doesn’t seem like the type who likes dragging out anything,” Courtney, he smirked at the suggestion.

He heard Charlie snort, “Unless it involves someone being naked.”

“No comment,” Lucia’s voice came through as he made it to where everyone was lounging.

“Baby you really gonna leave it at that?” he made his presence known; Lucia simply winked at him.

“It’s about time your ass got back,” Jakes threw a pillow at him, “we thought we’d have to come save you.”

Johnny raised an eyebrow looking at the group of people, “Yeah, ya’ll look like you were worried sick,” his eyes trained on the dirty dinner plates and half empty beer bottles. Throwing himself down between Lucia and Charlie he rested his head on his wife’s shoulder, Lucia reached over and stroked his cheek.

“Problem sorted?” Charlie stood up to get him something to drink.

“Somewhat,” he mumbled, “I’ll handle it,” his tone of voice made it clear the conversation was over for now. The subject was changed, and they fell back into the conversation of him dragging things out. Pushing himself off the couch he made his way to the kitchen, his mind finally being able to process his body’s needs after the long day he’s had. Finding a plate already made for him in the microwave he started heating his food. Resting against the kitchen counter he shut his eyes and exhaled. It was a long day, all he wanted to do was take a long hot shower and get into bed. He opened his eyes when he heard the scrape of a chair, signaling Mike sitting down by the island in the center of the large kitchen.

“Sup man,” he greeted his partner – technically they were all partners but over the years Mike and he formed a bond.

“How did it go?”

“Not bad,” raising his hands, “no slugs in me,” he leaned against the counter again, “they have ideas which may be useful for us.” 

Mike scoffed, the last few years haven’t been the easiest for them, they had each other but there were so many secrets that had to be buried and stories spun, that they could not afford to let their plans be crushed by something as trivial as some middle-class housewives who were in a pinch.

“We gotta be careful,” Mike leaned onto his fist, “if too many people are involved it may attract attention, mainly from old ghosts.”

“Uh huh,” Johnny sat across from him, digging into his dinner, his natural needs finally taking over as he all but inhaled his food. They sat in silence for a few minutes before he started talking again, “Beth has a system which I think may benefit us in the long run.”

Mike raised an eyebrow, Beth Boland and her little group have been an issue for the past two years now, what went from dealing with an innocent mistake of robbing the wrong mini mart to feeding into someone’s addiction for their lifestyle and specifically her addiction to Johnny. None of them have actually met these ladies besides Johnny, having only ever seeing them on surveillance from a distance, but it was safe to say none of them approved of the partnership Johnny struck up with Beth Boland, especially after she put three holes in him. However, Johnny seemed to believe they had the upper hand now.

“Told them I’d have to discuss it with my business associates,” Johnny took a gulp of his drink, pushing his now empty plate aside, “but I’ll talk about it tomorrow, right now all I wanna do is take a shower and get my ass into bed and sleep,” he raised an eyebrow when they heard someone else walking into the kitchen – Lucia.

“I was sent to make sure the two of you weren’t doing anything stupid,” she looked at both of them, over the years Mike and Johnny usually backed one another up, no matter how stupid or risky the other’s plan was. They laughed at her, while Johnny pulled her to stand between his legs.

“Hey mama,” he buried his nose into her hair, Mike took that as his queue, making his way back to the den, “how was your day baby?”

“Not bad,” she traced his covered forearms with her fingers, “how did tonight go, everything sorted?”

“That’s tomorrow’s problem,” he sighed, resting his forehead on her shoulder, knowing full well that if he should start any sentence off with Beth’s name he’ll be sleeping downstairs for the rest of the week, “right now I wanna go take that shower I was talkin’ bout and get into bed,” without a warning, he jumped off the stool and hoisted her over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold, hollering to the rest of the house as he made his way up the stairs, “yo, guys, we gonna turn in,” pausing on the stairs, “meeting at breakfast tomorrow yeah,” not waiting to hear the response from downstairs, he made it to their bedroom, kicking the door shut with his foot.

**Graceland, 2014**

Charlie held onto Johnny, his forehead resting on her shoulder, the two of them slightly swaying. She saw not only defeat in his eyes, but something she never thought she’d ever see in Johnny, resignation. He was done, her bright and optimistic ray of hope was just done with everything and that hurt more than anything else that happened in the last few weeks. She held onto him, hoping that it may stop him from falling apart, hoping it may stop her from falling apart, but it wasn’t, she could feel herself spiraling, going over the edge, but this time the person who usually caught her was falling with her.

“He signed the report,” Johnny whispered, “he signed it to protect us.”

She stroked his head, catching Mike’s eye as he walked towards the window, sending him a nod. She felt the shards of glass crunching underneath her feet, it sent a numbing feeling into the pit of her stomach, with every move they made on the spot. Briggs was sitting on the couch, nursing his wound, while Paige just stared blankly at the wall.

“Johnny,” she whispered, “where’s Jakes?” she felt him shake his head and hold on tighter, that was all the confirmation she needed. After a few minutes Paige went up to her room, leaving the FBI agents in the lounge.

“You did the right thing Mikey,” Briggs commented, “saved all out asses.”

It took every ounce of power in him to not lunge at Briggs in that moment, his nonchalant tone mocking him, “Trust me, I didn’t do it for you,” with that Mike made his way upstairs as well, Charlie pulling Johnny along behind Mike, leaving Briggs alone. Pulling Johnny towards her room she made him lay down on the bed, still holding him, a few minutes past and Mike walked in shutting the door behind him, laying on the other side of Johnny. They sat in silence, not having any more tears to shed, the anger slowly fading and being replaced with an unknown emotion.

“He just left,” Johnny spoke up, staring at the ceiling, “said he loved me and walked away, with the 9 million in tow.”

Charlie looked over at him, “What?”

“I tried to stop him, tried to talk him down,” his voice sounded hollow, “said he only wanted her and to be happy.”

If someone got wind that that money was gone, they all would be screwed. Everything was just so messed up. Charlie looked at the two guys next to her, “Briggs killed Ari,” the both didn’t show any reaction to her words, probably expecting that from Paul at this point, “I wanted to bring him in, but Briggs said there was no other way, next thing I knew Paige was pulling me outside while Briggs finished the job.” 

They let the events of the last few days sink in, the reality setting in. There was no getting out of this anytime soon. All of them were together in this whether they liked it or not. Charlie moved down and rested her head on Johnny’s chest, her hand reaching over and taking Mike’s hand in hers, squeezing it gently. Slowly the exhaustion of the last few days caught up to them and the remnants of their little family fell asleep while holding onto one another.

**A Bar, 2014**

It’s been roughly a month since Jakes left. They were all in this state of limbo, not really knowing what was going to happen. They had cases and assignments and they did them, but it wasn’t the same. A new agent was supposedly on their way – they were not sure if it was a new ICE agent – frankly none of them cared at this point. There was this new set up in the house, where Briggs kept to himself unless he needed something, while Johnny, Mike and Charlie clustered together and Paige was simply present – after what happened with Ari, the three of them didn’t know what to make of her involvement in siding with Briggs’ that day. The house felt empty and strange, like they were strangers living in someone else’s house, waiting to be turned out as imposters.

Johnny was seated at the bar lost in his own thoughts. Mike and Charlie were on their way from a sting operation to join him. This was their routine, work, surf and chill at the bar. They wouldn’t always order anything, but just the atmosphere of the bar put them at ease, even if it was only for a few hours a day. Over the past month something changed in him, he was still Johnny, but slightly more reserved, he started pushing harder with cases, took a bit more control of situations and stopped looking for acceptance in Paul. He visited his mom more often now, even checked up on his brother, albeit discreetly – he was going to protect and care for what was left of his family, no matter what the costs are.

Lost in his own thoughts he didn’t notice the girl walking towards him until she was seated next to him. He sighed, getting ready to turn and tell whoever it was that he was waiting for people, not in the mood for a random hook-up. Turning towards the girl, he froze when he looked at her face, his mind which was usually running on overdrive came to a halt. He was certain that he was awake and he was definitely sober, deciding to wait for the other two before getting anything on the tab, but at that moment his surroundings buzzed around him as though he was intoxicated or in a dream - in this case a recurring dream.

The girl next to him stuck her hand out, “Hi, I’m Lucia,” he just stared at her, “I just moved here,” she smiled.

Somehow, he managed to find his voice, “Hi, I’m Johnny,” he took her hand and shook it.

“Nice to meet you Johnny,” she didn’t let go of his hand, “what do you do?”

“I’m an FBI agent,” he didn’t even think about his answer.

Raising her eyebrow, her lip quirked a little, “That’s interesting, my family ran a drug cartel.”

“What are the odds,” he smirked, the tension and shock slowly leaving him.

“Yeah, my brother was put away by an FBI agent actually,” she replied.

He inched a little closer to her, resting his chin against his free hand – the other still in her grasp, “Yeah?”

“Uh huh,” she leaned closer, “it was a big thing, very scandalous.”

“How so?”

“I ended up falling for the agent,” she looked at him.

“Yeah?” his voice became a bit strained, eyes darting to the entrance of the bar checking for Mike and Charlie, “what happened to him?”

“I thought it would be best to let him go home as a hero,” she stuttered a bit as she squeezed his hand, they were fulling facing each other now, “he could go home and put a badge on and move on with his life and not have to deal with the consequences of trying to protect a drug dealer’s daughter.”

Johnny gave her a hard stare when she said this, rocking his jaw slightly, “I’m sure he would have done anything for you.”

Without waiting for a response, he cupped her cheek with his free hand and kissed her, resting his head on her forehead when he pulled away. Without skipping a beat, he pulled her off the stool and towards the exit, “Come on.”

Wordlessly she followed him to his car. Johnny was so focused on leaving he walked straight passed Mike and Charlie, both frozen to the spot when they saw who he was pulling along with him. They both stood there for a few minutes before turning to one another, lost for words.

“Was that-,” Mike began.

“I think so,” Charlie answered. They looked at one another, so much has happened in the last few weeks, this really shouldn’t be that shocking. Deciding to not even attempt to follow Johnny right at that moment, they made their way into the bar.

Meanwhile Johnny started the car up and headed for Graceland, not caring one bit if anyone was there. They didn’t speak as he drove. Lucia looked over at him, his jaw was set and he stared at the road ahead – something was different about him, as though he had been through hell these last few months, which he probably has, given how they left things off and what she was told had happened in the last few weeks. He pulled up to a large beach house, parking the car, they sat in silence for a few moments, he still hasn’t looked at her since they got into the car. Finally they made their way into the house, Johnny secretly thanking God that no one was in the lounge, taking her by the hand he led her up the stairs, really not caring about the rules – she wasn’t anyone, she knew who he was now, there were going to be no more secrets anymore from the moment she sat down on that barstool.

Locking his bedroom door behind him, he turned to face her. Seeing her in his personal area seemed to do a lot to his mind. With that he decided that talking can wait and pulled her towards him, gently pushing her hair out of her face. He felt her hands brush against his sides before gripping his waist, urging him closer to her. Not thinking twice, he leaned down and kissed her again, this time deepening the kiss and bringing her closer. They just stood there, kissing one another and holding onto one another. The need to be close and with each other urging them further into one another. They were so wrapped up in the moments, they didn’t realise she still had her back slung across her shoulder and he still had his car keys in his hands, only taking note of this when he gently set her on his bed.

Throwing the offending objects off the bed, she pulled him on top of her, locking her legs around his. She felt his hands snake along her jaw and neck, then travel down further, skimming along her arms and continuing further until reaching the bottom of her loose sundress. Rationally she knew they should talk first, about what happened and what to do next, but she also knew that he needed this, he needed to feel something good again, they both did. Tugging on his shirt as a signal, he pulled away to give her space to pull it over his head. His kisses became shallower and more shortened as he moved down her neck, his fingers tugging at her bra, her panties, he got rid of his jeans and boxers.

Tonight, wasn’t for slow and sensual, tonight was for them to feel one another again, to feel safe and wanted. He slid into her, going still and basking in the familiar feeling. Burying his face into her neck and sucking onto the skin, he started moving, knowing that he wasn’t going to last very long tonight, whether it was because of shock or adrenaline, regardless he wanted them to savour this for as long as they could. Her nails scraped along the nape of his neck and down his back, then along his arms. As they both came, he rested his forehead against hers, their breathing ragged and shallow.

Once they were settled, he pulled his boxers on and handed her his shirt to wear – something they did in the past. It suddenly dawned on him that she was really here when they settled on the bed, her sitting in his lap, while he rested against the headboard. She stroked his cheek, noticing that there was more stubble than he usually allows, his hands rested on her waist, their eyes were closed as they just soaked in the moment. Then it dawned on Johnny, slightly pulling away, he looked at her through his lashes.

“How did you find me?” he felt her shift as well, to get a better look at him, her hands still on his cheeks, “I thought you’d be settled underneath the Southern Cross by now,” he didn’t mean for the words to sound as bitter as they did.

She smiled slightly, “I was staying with family friends in Florida for a few months after the trial, I knew I couldn’t stay in Long Beach for too long in case any of Carlito’s associates were still out there,” she moved her hands down to his shoulders, shifting slightly in his lap, letting one leg dangle over his and off the side of the bed, “I needed time to sort out my head and actually work out a plan for myself, I even got a Visa for New Zealand and got my own US citizenship,” this time giving him a knowing look, “a legit one this time,” he chuckled.

“I took a few online courses in many things, just to test the waters. I finally got my Visa two weeks ago and was finalizing my plane ticket and logistics for my arrival in Auckland, when I ran into someone in Florida.”

**Flashback**

She was walking through the flea market lost in thought, this morning she received her Visa for New Zealand. Finally, she could be free of all this, move on and start new, but something was still weighing on her. There was something holding her back, she knew it was Johnny, she knew she had to find some form of closure, just to let him know that she was okay and that she’ll be under the Southern Cross, but each time she wanted to call the Bureau or her security detail who was looking out for her in case her brother’s men found her, she chickened out. If she told him where she was or her plans, she knew there was a possibility that he would follow her, and she wouldn’t be the reason that he leaves the people he loves behind. So lost in thought, she didn’t see the lady on the bicycle coming towards her. The lady swerved and almost went into one of the stalls.

“I am so sorry,” rushing over to help the woman, she didn’t notice a second bicycle behind her, “are you ok?”

The lady smiled at her, “Don’t worry about it,” she straightened up and adjusted her helmet, “you look as though you were having an inner struggle with yourself,” the lady’s tone was light and friendly, no malice or offense beneath it. Lucia laughed softly and followed the lady’s gaze behind her and the tension that disappeared for a few moments was back. She knew this man in front of her – Johnny’s plane friend Jakes.

“Lucia?” he looked as shocked as she was, getting off his bike.

“Friend of yours?” the lady asked, her tone and posture still light and friendly.

“Uh, not exactly, more a friend of a friend,” Jakes seemed to be at a loss for words, “actually Courtney, this is Johnny’s ex-girlfriend, Lucia.”

The lady, Courtney, suddenly broke into a smile and stuck out her hand, “Nice to meet you,” Lucia shook her hand and smiled, a bit forced. Jakes gave his companion a nod, which seemed to be understood.

“I’m just gonna run into the store across the road real quick,” Courtney motioned behind her, smiling at Lucia again, she turned and was off.

Turning towards Jakes, looking at him with a hard stare, “You can’t tell him where I am.”

DJ simply shook his head and held up his hands in surrender, “Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to.”

“What do you mean?”

They moved out of the street and went to sit at a coffee shop, where Jakes explained everything that happened since Carlito’s arrest. He even went into detail about the Sarkissians and Soto Street – when he explained Johnny’s involvement, she wanted to shoot this Briggs guy herself. Everything came to light that afternoon, he even explained to her what Graceland was and what it meant to all of them, especially Johnny. She learnt a bit about everyone in the house and what they meant to one another as well, it made her sad to think that this group of people who became a family and formed a home, suddenly had it ripped apart because of one man’s manipulation.

“In the end I did the one thing I warned him not to do,” Jakes looked out onto the street, “and I hurt him, I think I broke him and the worst part is, by hurting him, I hurt all of them.”

So, in that random coffee shop in Florida, Lucia made her decision and somehow felt lighter when the words left her mouth, “Where is Graceland?”

**Johnny’s Room, 2014**

“I arrived two days ago,” by now Johnny’s face was buried into the nape of her neck again, she could feel the tension in his shoulders, “I’m staying in a hotel a few blocks away from that bar, Jakes actually helped me find the place so that it would be easy for me to find you,” she smiled as she stroked his head, “I walked around the bay on my first day here and the beach, I actually saw you at this taco truck, I think it’s called Hector’s?” she felt him shift and raise his head to look at her, “I wanted to go up to you but Jakes said I should make sure you were alone,” she traced his lips with her fingers, “then yesterday I went to the bar and I actually asked the bartender about you, I spun a story and told him I was an old high school friend and wanted to surprise you, he actually told me what time you usually go there,” she looked at him, “I’m sorry I left and I’m sorry I hurt you and I wasn’t here when everything happened-,”

Shaking his head, he cut her off, “No baby,” kissing her, pulling her closer, “you’re here now,” he kissed her again, his hands moving towards her thighs, pushing his shirt up, “please don’t leave me again,” he sounded vulnerable as he lifted her up and buried himself in her again, she moved over him, letting him bury his head into her chest as he silently repeated the same plea.

Pulling him closer and moving with him she promised him, she’d never leave again, “I won’t.” They spoke for the rest of the night, curled up in each other, finding out what the other was up to for the last six months, falling asleep just passed midnight.

**The next morning**

Paige was sipping coffee, reading over a case file in the kitchen when Johnny walked down the steps, he smiled at her and pulled out two coffee mugs. Raising her eyebrow, she watched him make two cups of coffee and put four waffles into the toaster, something wasn’t right, there were no signs that someone slept downstairs, what was even more strange was the fact that Johnny smiled at her. In the last month, the only people he seemed to be himself with were Mike and Charlie, having written Briggs off and keeping Paige at an arm’s length. She understood why, but it still hurt, she and Johnny were close and looked out for one another, but she knew this wasn’t something any of them could just forgive and forget.

“Good morning Paige,” he looked over at her, “sleep well.”

“Uh yeah,” it took her a while to respond, “and you,” her eyes zoned in on the two coffee mugs.

“I slept like a baby, baby,” he had a playful tone, a tone which she hasn’t heard from him in weeks. He placed everything on a tray, winked at her and made his way up the stairs. Abandoning her own cup of coffee and case file, she quietly went up after him, hearing his door shut and lock behind him – Johnny never locks his door, ever. Moving closer to the room, she pressed her ear against the door, trying to make out who was in there with him, glancing at Chuck’s door and Mike’s door, both closed as well, she moved to the other two’s rooms, testing the knobs and finding them unlocked. Checking both rooms, she found the occupants asleep in their respective rooms. No way would Briggs be in there, he left early this morning and Johnny still had the urge to put more bullets in him.

She was so absorbed in trying to figure out what he was up to, she didn’t hear Charlie’s door swing open, she let out a yelp and knocked her head against the door she was leaning against when Chuck snuck up behind her. Looking over at Charlie she gave her a sheepish look, who in turn raised her eyebrow in amusement. Rolling her eyes Charlie knocked on Johnny’s door.

“Yo,” she hollered, “did you and Lucia enjoy your little sleep over last night,” by now Mike was also standing outside the door, nodding his head when Paige looked at him in shock, confirming Charlie’s accusation. They heard shuffling on the other side and what sounded like the rustling of sheets. The door swung open revealing a shirtless Johnny holding a half-eaten toaster waffle and a very sheepish looking brunette standing behind him.

“God dammit Chuck,” his voice was strained, “how did you know?”

“Cos you walked right passed us last night, on your way out of the bar,” she motioned between her and Mike, who sent the couple a little wave.

Paige, recovering from her shock moved around Johnny, sticking out her hand, “Hi, I’m Paige,” Lucia shook her hand and smiled sheepishly, before anyone could say anything else, Johnny moved between the two, motioning for Paige to step out.

“Did you forget the rule about upstairs,” Mike raised his eyebrow, but there was nothing but amusement on his face, Johnny sent him a glare and clutched the door.

“We’ll talk about this later guys,” before pushing them all further out the doorway and slamming the door he paused, “and no one even think of telling Briggs about this,” with that the door shut and locked. The three of them stood outside the door, looking at one another, bursting into laughter, Chuck looked at Paige, who was still slightly shocked, “What’s for breakfast?” she smiled at the blonde, who suddenly felt a bit lighter than she did when she woke up this morning.

“I can try making pancakes,” Mike suggested.

“It’ll never be as good as mine son,” came Johnny’s voice from the other side of the door, a bit muffled.

“Well maybe you can show off your skills and make us some, son,” Mike shot back.

They heard something along the lines of “fuck off dumbasses” as they went downstairs.

It was roughly around noon when Johnny and Lucia emerged from the bedroom, having showered and freshened up, making their way down the stairs, his arm draped across her shoulders. They walked into the kitchen where the other three were having a late breakfast. It seemed as though Mike was serious about attempting to make pancakes, there were specks of flour everywhere, as well as batter dripping from the stovetop.

“How did that pancake making go,” eyeing the dirty counter tops.

“It was a hit my man,” Mike held up his plate to show a perfectly round and fluffy pancake, Johnny raised an eyebrow, pursing his lips, looking at the girls.

“After failing at making the batter thrice,” Paige spoke up, popping a blueberry into her mouth.

Johnny scoffed, “Yo man, keep trying,” letting Lucia scooch onto the bench alongside the table, “but just like your land speed, you’ll never beat me son.” Sitting down next to Lucia and across from the others who were all looking at them with knowing looks.

“So,” Chuck smirked, “I’ll ask again; how was your sleepover?” The others both stared at the two of them.

“None of your damn business,” Johnny reached over and stole a pancake off of Mike’s plate. Mike just shook his head and smiled at Lucia.

“I’m Mike.”

“He was in charge of your father’s case,” Johnny said between bites, he looked up and saw the awkward expressions on his family’s faces, “oh no it’s cool guys, everything is sorted out.”

“Yeah totally,” Lucia laughed, everything was sorted out. Last night they spoke through everything and came to an agreement, if they were going to try this, there’d be no secrets between them, “You guys were doing your jobs. It’s nice to meet you Mike,” he smiled back at her.

“I gotta ask though,” Charlie leaned back in her seat, “how did you find us?” Lucia sent Johnny a look, who set his fork down and looked at the rest of them, he swallowed his food, folding his hand in his lap, nodding at her.

“I was in Florida for a few months and about two weeks ago, I ran into Jakes,” the atmosphere in the room changed, as three sets of eyes all bored into her, “he recognized me and told me the truth and told me where to find Johnny.”

Charlie looked as though she might cry, “You saw Jakes,” Lucia nodded.

“He said if I find you, that I should tell you all that he’s safe and happy,” she looked at all of them, “ he actually wrote you each letters, I’ve been carrying them around with me.”

“Where in Florid?” Paige asked. Lucia shook her head, Jakes told her not to tell them, in case it got out. He knew they would never come for him but the risk of it getting out and someone who would come for him finding out was too great.

“He asked me not to say,” the group nodded, understanding why. They fell into a light conversation, getting to know her, the conversation shifted to living arrangements. Johnny straightened up and looked at the group.

“Here, with me,” all of them including Lucia looked at him, not convinced, he stared back at all of them and then at Lucia, “well where were you gonna stay if not here?”

“I didn’t think that far ahead, I was too focused on finding you first, but I’ll probably look for a place close by,” he did not look impressed one bit, “it might be easier, you said so yourself, you’re not up for Briggs finding out about this now and there might be someone new moving in.”

“So that don’t matter,” Johnny argued, Charlie sent him a look, “besides you don’t know if your brother still has people lurking around here,” he looked at the others, who all still looked skeptical, “fine if you don’t want her to stay here then I’ll take her to my mom’s place.”

“We didn’t say that,” Mike jumped in, always the voice of reason.

At the same time Lucia huffed, “I am not going to inconvenience your mother.”

Johnny sent them both scathing looks, Mike continued, “Ultimately it’s up to Lucia, but I understand where Johnny is coming from but we also need to consider that we still have Briggs in the house,” gesturing towards John, “someone who we all, you included, no longer trust,” turning to Lucia, “like Lucia said, we’re waiting on a new housemate, who we have never met and we don’t even know which agency they’re from,” he looked at Lucia, “how long is your hotel room booked for?”

“Another week.”

“So, in that time you guys can figure what to do,” Mike provided, Lucia nodded her head in agreement. Johnny looked between the two of them, clearly not impressed with how well they were getting along. Charlie smirked and sent Paige a look, who in turn laughed.

“This is gonna be fun,” Charlie popped a blueberry into her mouth, Mike and Paige nodded their heads, “I like you Lucia.”

“I like you guys too,” she glanced at Johnny, who still did not look impressed with any of them, they just all laughed at his surly mood, “we’ll figure it out yeah,” he just pursed his lips and continued eating his pancakes.

“Regardless of what you decide or what Mike suggests,” Charlie continued, “this uncooperative dumbass is going to keep you here as much as he can, so we may as well tell you all the rules, firstly, there are no secrets in Graceland,” Johnny scoffed, she sent him a look, he threw his hands up in surrender, “we’re still working on that, secondly, there’s a chore wheel, for now, where it says Johnny, you guys can share duties,” she looked at him, pointing her fork in his direction, “no funny business.”

“And thirdly, be careful,” he jumped in, “usually we’re s’posed to make ourselves known if someone is already in the bathroom, but Charlie over here has a curious mind,” Charlie winked at her.

They sat for another few minutes chatting. It was the first time in a long time where there wasn’t any tension in the room. Around about 1:00 pm Paige realised she still had a case ongoing and excused herself, Mike offered to help her – she smiled, hopefully this was a sign that things were slowly starting to get better.

Charlie waited for them to be out of ear shot when she turned to Johnny, “Where is he?”

“I didn’t tell him either,” Johnny nodded his head as confirmation, “Jakes said out of everyone, Johnny will tell you. He knows you won’t turn him in, but he just can’t take the risk just yet.”

“Alright,” Charlie sighed in defeat, “we’ll take your word for it.”

“Aye yo,” Johnny rested his forearms on the table, “she said Jakes was riding a bicycle,” this made her laugh.

“You shitting me.”

“Nope,” Lucia shook her head, “his girlfriend almost rode into me.”

Staring down at his watch he looked over at Charlie, “What time is Briggs going to be back?”

“No idea.”

“We should get going,” Johnny stood up. He was not in the mood for Briggs meeting Lucia or asking questions about how she found them. They’ll figure out a cover story later. As they made their way out of the house Charlie pulled her into a hug, whispering in her ear, “Thank you,” she just hugged her back and smiled.

**Classified location, six years later**

He felt a hand stroking his cheek as he woke up, it’s been a while since they’ve woken up together, usually one of them would be up or even gone by the time the other has woken up. He pulled her closer, rolling her under him, her legs spreading slightly so he could notch his between hers. Looking down at her he brushed the hair out of her face.

“Hey,” she mumbled, her voice still heavy with sleep.

“Hey mama,” his voice was thick with sleep, his fingers tracing her lips.

She pulled him down, her lips brushing his, her hands snaking around his neck, fingers tracing the contours of the tattoo that graced his neck, they all had one somewhere. He hoisted her one leg over his waist, giving him better access. Her hands moved from his neck down to his arms as he kissed along her neck.

“I love you,” he whispered, “so God damn much.”

“I know,” smirking at her use of a Starwars reference, Johnny’s lip quirked up into a lopsided grin, before bending down and kissing her. Regardless of how much they’ve all changed over the years and how much he has changed, he was still that nerdy idiot who saved her all those years ago underneath the cold stares and intimidating neck tattoo.

They made their way into the kitchen area a few minutes later. Mike was flipping pancakes with one hand hold the pan and sipping coffee with the other. Johnny raised his eyebrow, “Really still tryna beat be?”

“I’ve gotten pretty decent over the years,” Mike defended himself.

Lucia reached over and stole a pancake, “He has babe,” tossing one onto a plate for Johnny as well, “your pancakes are more than pretty decent Mike,” she winked at him, before glancing at Johnny.

“Really, in front of me and my pancakes?” Johnny gestured to his plate.

“Yeah,” she kissed his cheek as she walked to the den.

“Have you told her yet?” Mike asked, finishing the last few pancakes up.

“What and risk not getting some last night?” Johnny poured himself coffee, grabbing the filled plate of pancakes to take to the den, “Do I look stupid to you,” before Mike could answer, “don’t answer that bro.”

Mike just laughed, following him into the den where the rest were all gathered. Sitting himself down between Charlie and Jakes, Mike dug into his breakfast.

“So, what happened last night?” Jakes sipped his coffee, looking over at Johnny.

“I’m handling it,” Johnny swallowed his food and looked at the group, “but I think, keeping them around for a bit longer may be beneficial to us.”

**Flashback**

He was cold, tired and just wanted to go home, instead, he was standing outside the bar, waiting for Beth to show up. The old Johnny would have liked Beth, would have thought she was smart and a risk taker. She was smart and took a hell of a lot of risks, but she was also reckless and acted too much on impulse, something this Johnny was not too keen on. She had good ideas, wanted to get to the top, but was dead set on not getting her hands dirty.

They were so close to their end goal, until these three ladies showed up, proving to be the biggest snag in their plans. He thought if he could get them to pay them back the money they stole by mistake all their problems would be solved, what he didn’t bank on was they enjoying the rush this life had to offer, especially Beth, who according to his team was not only into this life but into him as well – even after she put three bullets in him, they all still believe she has this weird fascination with him. He thought using a bit of intimidation would solve the problem, all it did was draw them in more. Tonight, was the first time in a long time where he’d be meeting her without anyone listening in or watching them – something Charlie and Lucia were not too happy about.

“Hey now,” he greeted her as she walked up to him, they walked into the bar, sitting in an empty booth, “so this arrangement we have, I think it’s run its course yeah.”

“What?” her face fell, “you can’t just cut us off like that, we do good work, we work hard, I work hard.”

“It’s time to move on to new things,” he kept his voice even, “besides, can’t have you putting three slugs in me again if things get too much.”

She looked away, “You pushed me.”

“And you shot the wrong person.”

Changing the subject, she placed her hands on the table, “I have a proposition,” he raised an eyebrow, “we’ll transport your exchanges between here and Mexico.”

“What’s in it for you?”

“You don’t interfere with our system and how we use our cut.”

Johnny sat and thought it over, their dealings in Mexico were touch and go for obvious reasons. Too many people were looking for them, but there were connections they needed that side. This could work in their advantage.

“And how would you’d and your girls get that right?”

“We can deliver your pills,” it was simple, they could cross the border with the rouse of going on a girls’ trip to Mexico, no one would think twice.

“You wanna cart shit across the border?”

“For a price.”

**Classified location, six years later**

“How much do they want?” Charlie looked at him clearly not impressed.

“Forty,” he glanced at Lucia, who did not look impressed with any of this, “I told them I’d have to discuss it with my associates.”

“I think it’s time we meet these women,” Mike leaned his elbows against his knees, “they need to understand this isn’t some game.”

“I agree,” Jakes looked at Johnny, “I get it, you’re trying to keep this as clean as possible, but I think it’s time we all step in, because on top of this we still have other debts and problems to deal with.”

They all looked around at each other, Jakes had a point, these women were becoming a problem. There were too many variables at play and too many risks, however there were pros to using them in this case. If they could just pull of the job in Mexico, they’d be set to put their final plan into play. It was a risk that they would be willing to take on one condition.

“We all need to be present the next time you meet the John,” Paige looked over at him. Johnny nodded his head in agreement. It was time these ladies understood this wasn’t some game and that it wasn’t just him they were dealing with but all of them in the house.

“When’s the next meeting?” Charlie asked, “Maybe two of us can go with you,” she looked at the others who nodded, “who wants to meet these ladies?”

All eyes fell on Lucia, “I highly doubt any of us wants me to be anywhere near that trigger happy bitch,” she rarely ever cussed or lost her tempter, however the exception to that usually came with Beth Boland, specifically after she put three bullets into Johnny, “Charlie you could go.”

Chuck shrugged her shoulders, sending Lucia an amused look, “I’ll go, you sure you don’t wanna tag along?” Johnny told her years ago how Lucia wanted to kill Carlito once and how she kicked him after Johnny flipped the car – she always wondered how much Lucia was holding back.

“Mikey and Chuck can go with when I see them next,” Johnny spoke up, “the rest of you can be in the car or somewhere close by with the materials, that way they meet all of you at the next drop.”

They seemed to agree on that and so the meeting ended, and they dispersed, going about with their work for the day, leaving Jakes, Chuck and Johnny in the den. They needed to formulate a system, one which would prevent any slip ups if they were to pull of this Mexico job and keep these ladies in check.


	2. Chapter 2: The New Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They get a new housemate who asks a lot of questions. The family gets to know Lucia a bit better as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 2!   
> The restaurant that is mentioned is actually a place in Cape Town, with really good American Style breakfast items, but I decided to tweak it up a bit in the story. 
> 
> Feedback is appreciated 
> 
> P.S: I am so going to hell for one of the scenes I wrote. Also I really wish there were more Johnny Tuturro stories out there and more Johnny/Lucia stories and pictures out there, or even like Rio/Lucia stuff out there. I'm just not feeling the whole Brio thing. I also recently watched Undrafted - Manny and Aaron really need to star in more things opposite one another because they are really sweet together. Lastly, why is there no boxer au's?
> 
> x

**Chapter 2: The New Guy**

**Graceland, 2014**

Paul walked into the house that afternoon, he was tired and frustrated. He got a call from the Brass about a new agent coming to Graceland – this time from the DEA. There was an urge to fight this, to refuse a new member, however, fighting this would mean they’d be in a position to reveal what happened. It was only a matter of time before this new agent discovered what happened here and the truth behind Jakes leaving. They covered up the truth as much as they could; to the rest of the world Dale Jakes put in a resignation letter and disappeared, but it was only a matter of time before someone got wind of the nine million that was missing.

Walking through the house, he checked the communal areas for any sign of the other inhabitants of Graceland. No one seemed to be around, so he decided to take a walk to their usual spot on the beach, in hopes of finding the rest of the team. He found the sitting at their usual spot, talking and seemingly enjoying a breezy afternoon. As he approached, he noticed the shift in the mood when they saw him, ever so slightly.

“Sup guys,” he sat down on of the rocks, “it’s been a while since we’ve all been here.”

“Not much,” Charlie replied, “we’re just enjoying the afternoon.”

Paul nodded, the last few weeks have been incredibly tense, they rarely spoke or stayed in the same room for prolonged periods of time. All of them seemed on edge and the arrival of a new agent may just push them all further apart and may even burn Graceland.

“So the Brass called,” he sighed, “they’re sending someone new,” as he said those words the rest of them all reacted as he thought they would, he could sense the resistance, “guys we don’t have a choice, after what happened with Jakes, they’re gonna sweep it under the rug and get someone new in, that’s just how it goes.”

They knew he was right, that’s how Mike ended up at Graceland in the first place, if Donnie didn’t get hit, he may not have ever ended up there. That’s just how Graceland was designed, it immersed everyone into the area, you became part of it, adapted fast to your surroundings, but as soon as you slip up or jeopardize others, you are disposed of just as fast. When these things happened, it was a frightening reminder that even though they were free to do what they wanted and followed a very particular rule book, someone from the outside still had control.

“I don’t like this either,” Paul continued, “but we have to take it, because if we don’t people are gonna start asking questions and after everything we’ve done, we can’t afford that.”

Before he could stop himself, Mike looked up and retaliated, “You mean after everything you’ve done.”

Paul let out a frustrated breath, “Fine Mike,” throwing his hands in the air, “if you wanna put it that way, after everything I’ve done, but just remember we all were involved,” standing up to leave, “the new guy is getting here later this evening, lets all just be there and put up some united front.”

He paused and turned back towards them, “And tell Johnny to be there, he wasn’t at the house and his door was locked this morning, which was strange and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t alone last night, that kid is gonna cause trouble if he doesn’t get his shit together,” with that he walked away, while the rest of them looked at one another.

**An hour earlier at the beach**

Charlie, Mike and Paige were sitting by their usual spot on the beach for the past hour just talking. They spoke about everything – what happened with the Sarkissians, Ari and Toros’ murders, Paige and Briggs’ plans, Jakes leaving and what will happen now. Even though Paige was on board with Mike not signing off on the report, she was relieved that he did. Yet, it didn’t stop the guilt from festering away inside of her. She regretted siding with Paul, but her determination to close this case and her ongoing guilt regarding Lena pushed her. So, in the end she saw her role in bringing down the Sarkissians as retribution – but then the dust settled and she realised she was just a pawn in both Briggs’ and Logan’s plans.

**Somewhere on the beach**

He was resting against a boulder with Lucia laying between his legs as they watched the waves. After leaving Graceland, they drove to her hotel, which was quite a nice hotel – Jakes really set her up – then roamed around the area. He showed her around, all the places she should know, he even took her to Hector’s which ended up being a very awkward excursion.

**Flashback**

“This is the best Mexican food you’ll find,” he pulled her along towards Hector’s, Lucia just laughed at his excitement.

“If you say so,” he stopped, hearing the amusement and doubt in her voice.

“Just trust me babe,” kissing her head before he turned to the cart and stopped, surprised by who was running the van today, “hey Jenny,” his voice shook a bit. He hated to admit that after a few dates he never called her again, too riddled with guilt – he honestly felt bad that he used her as a means to an end, she’d never know that, maybe even thinking it was just a fling that fizzled out, but he would. He completely forgot that she helps her father out when she isn’t working or studying.

“Johnny,” she smiled, but it quickly faltered when she saw his arm slung around someone else, “the usual?”

“Yeah,” he paid her, “helping out today?”

“Yup,” she glanced at Lucia, “who’s your friend?”

It took him a few seconds to register, “Uh this is Lucia,” he smiled at her, “my girlfriend.” Jenny raised an eyebrow at the declaration, so did Lucia. They didn’t quite get to speaking about the status of their relationship, but when it came to trivial things, compared to work, Johnny was easily frazzled, so it just slipped out. Lucia smiled at Jenny, who seemed a bit sheepish as she turned to get their order. They found a place to sit, Lucia stared at the napkins, an amused look on her face, she held up one napkin to reveal ‘Asshole’ written across it.

“Uh,” he just shrugged not knowing what to say, as she laughed and dug into her tacos.

**End of Flashback**

He was playing with a strand of her hair, his nose buried into her hair, arms wrapped around her. Eventually he did explain why Jenny wrote that on the napkin and she just rolled her eyes, an amused look on her face – she couldn’t be mad at him for trying to move on or whatever he was trying to do. After their late lunch – which she admitted was some of the best Mexican food outside of Mexico she’s had – they walked along the beach, before finding a place to settle for the rest of the afternoon. They didn’t mention his revelation about her being his girlfriend since they left Hector’s.

“So,” he bent down further to kiss her shoulder, “this is technically our first date.”

“I guess it is,” she shifted slightly, to look up at him, stroking the stubble on his chin, “so about what you called me earlier,” he tried to find an explanation, but she just smiled, leaning up to kiss him, “I want to be.”

He smirked, “Yeah?” he pulled her closer as she nodded her head, kissing her full on the lips. Pulling away, they settled back into watching the waves. Their moment of peace and quiet was short lived, because not five minutes later, Johnny’s phone started to ring. Checking to see who it was, he rolled his eyes before shoving the phone back into his pocket – Briggs could wait. A few moments later, the ringing began again.

“It could be work,” she buried her face into his chest.

“I got no open cases right now,” he declined the call, “Briggs can sort his own shit out.”

Before she could respond, his phone made a sound, signaling a text, groaning, he pulled it out again, this time ready to turn the damn device off, when he saw it was a text from Mike reading, _‘Unless you want Briggs to find out about your little secret, get your ass home, the new agent is coming tonight.’_ So much for a first date.

**Graceland, 2014**

After very reluctantly dropping Lucia off at her hotel, Johnny sauntered into the den where the rest of his housemates were. Briggs sent him an expectant look, almost demanding an explanation for declining his calls. Ignoring the man, he used to look up to, he threw himself down next to Mike, who looked just as unimpressed to be there as he was. Charlie raised an eyebrow at him, he shrugged.

“Where were you today John?” Briggs asked, his legs resting on the table in front of him, “I tried calling you earlier.”

“Was busy,” he replied, leaning his head back, resting it against the couch, suddenly the adrenaline high he was on since last night slowly started to wear off.

“Doing what?” since everything that went down, Briggs has had this need to know where all of them were if not at the house, as if they would be conspiring against him somewhere, “You have no open cases and you aren’t helping anyone at the moment.”

“I don’t need to report to you about every single thing I do in my free time man,” he kept his eyes closed and his head against the couch, “you ain’t my boss.”

“No, I’m not, but I’m the one making sure this place doesn’t burn.”

“Whatever man.”

“Lay off him Paul,” Charlie stepped in before things escalated, “what he does in his free time is his business, besides no one loves this place more than Johnny.”

“Thanks Chuck,” he stuck his fist in the air.

“So, who’s the new agent?” Paige who was seated next to Chuck looked over at Briggs.

“Someone from the DEA,” Briggs looked over at the file in his hand, “apparently this guy busted some very high-profile drug dealers on the East Coast and was top of his class.”

“So, the DEA version of me basically,” Mike held his fist out, to which Johnny bumped it with his own, without opening his eyes.

Paige chucked a pillow at the two of them. Briggs still found it strange that almost overnight, the four of them were suddenly on such good terms. For now, he decided not to pry, he couldn’t afford to have any more tension in the house, before this new person arrived; if they wanted to keep themselves out of trouble, they’d all have to be on their best behaviour. While waiting everyone busied themselves with something.

Johnny was on his phone, when Mike leaned over and quietly asked, “So how’s my new bestie?”

He expected the side eye, he did not expect the elbow to the ribs, “Shut up man,” even though he was trying to be serious, he couldn’t hide the grin, “she’s good, we had fun today.”

Mike laughed, he was happy for his friend, he knew how difficult personal relationships could be in this line of work. Johnny was lucky that he was able to be honest with Lucia, even though the circumstances of how they got together were less than desirable. Not being able to let an opportunity go, he stretched his hands behind his head and glanced over at his friend.

“You could say I had a hand in the two of you getting together,” he smirked, “I mean it was my idea to send you under.”

Johnny stopped typing, but didn’t look up from his phone, his jaw working, Mike continued, “Then I had that idea that you should try to get close to her when Carlito disappeared,” by now Johnny was itching to hit him and Mike couldn’t hide the shit eating grin.

“I really wanna hit you,” Johnny stared ahead, “anyone ever tell you, you got a punchable face bruh?”

“No but I’ve always had the feeling I do,” Mike laughed, “but seriously man, I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks man,” Johnny smiled, he glanced at his phone, about to respond to the last text she sent when the front door opened, revealing Gerry and the new agent. The new guy looked to be around the same age as Johnny and Mike, he was stocky in built, similar to Bates but a bit taller.

“Graceland residents,” Silvo greeted them, “meet your newest housemate, Jeff Solari,” he motioned to the new guy, “he transferred from the East coast and was one of the top DEA agents that side,” at this, Jeff’s mouth twitched, almost as if he was trying to suppress a smirk, “his last bust saw them put away one of the biggest drug distribution chains on the East side,” he paused, “I’m actually going to stop there, he’s a big boy he can introduce himself.”

“It’s good to finally be here and meet everyone,” he smiled, “I’ve heard a lot about this place and the work you do, I’m looking forward to contributing to this team,” his eyes scanned the room, looking at all of them, “as Gerry said, I recently transferred from the East coast and actually headed the main DEA task force.”

“So why transfer to Graceland?” Paige was the first to speak, it made sense as they came from the same agency, she got up, holding out her hand, “Paige Arkin, DEA as well,” they shook hands.

“Change of scenery and routine I guess,” he smirked at her, “things get boring after a while, especially when you catch all the bad guys.”

Johnny eyed him up and down, maybe it was his recent paranoia that set in after everything that happened or maybe it was the thought of someone coming in and replacing Jakes, but whatever it was, something didn’t feel right about this guy. There was something arrogant about him – not like Briggs who was charming and smooth, this arrogance seemed to come with hostility. Regardless of how he felt, he probably should give this guy the benefit of the doubt, they all were new at some point.

“Hey man,” he got up, “Tuturro, FBI,” he held out his hand. Soon everybody introduced themselves and Gerry left, giving them time to become acquainted. It wasn’t the same when Mike moved in, for obvious reasons the environment was much less tense, even if Lauren was being reckless in her attempts to save Donnie. This whole situation felt too forced, as though the Brass was trying to brush everything under the carpet, even though they didn’t know what really happened - as far as they were concerned Jakes went AWOL.

After a while Paul showed Jeff his new room – Jakes’ room to be precise – and the rest of them stayed downstairs. Throughout the night, it seemed Jeff was taken with everything Paul had to say and Paul seemed to enjoy the fact that there was someone new in the house who didn’t hate his guts at the moment. The rest of them said nothing, choosing to let it go, because if Paul didn’t take the lead, one of them would and they were not in the right emotional state to be the chaperone to the person who they saw as taking Jakes’ place. Soon Paige and Charlie said goodnight, both needing to be up early for cases tomorrow, leaving Mike and Johnny downstairs.

“Poor guy,” Mike took a swig of his drink, “that had to be the worse welcome ever, he didn’t even get the JT orientation.”

“Nah man,” Johnny laughed, “that was reserved just for you.”

They both chuckled, Johnny looked at the stairs, “So what do we think of the new guy?”

“He seems normal,” Mike’s tone indicated that was not a good thing, “it’s strange.”

“How so?” Johnny looked over at him, “you were normal,” pausing, “nah you weren’t, I see your point.”

“He looks like he’s here to work.”

“Yeah but can we trust him?” Johnny straightened up, resting his elbows on his knees, “nothing stays a secret for long here and a guy like that, who seemed to be hanging on Briggs’ every word can’t be good news.”

Mike raised an eyebrow, “You sound like me now,” he chuckled, “paranoid and skeptical.”

“You were right though,” Johnny pointed out, he was correct, at the end Mike was right about everything, all the manipulating and mind tricks played on them, “and don’t forget bruh, both of us idolized and respected Briggs, just like it seems this newbie does.”

He had to agree, they both seemed in awe of Briggs at some point, the only difference being, the two of them were not as clean cut or normal as this guy appeared to be. Johnny came from a home where his mother worked to provide for four boys, only to have one join the ESL, while another had been keeping his career a secret from her. He himself, came from a family where his parents had mapped out his entire future, only for him to ruin their plans by joining the FBI – not something two Harvard graduate defense attorneys wanted for their pride and joy. This guy seemed too perfect, with a spotless record, perfect test scores and a clean-cut persona.

“Maybe we’re just used to being on edge lately,” Mike tried to reason with him for the second time today, “I’m not saying we shouldn’t be careful, the girls and I actually spoke about this earlier, but I do think the more on edge we are the more suspicious it will seem, especially if this guy is so eager to please the Brass and Briggs.”

Johnny nodded his head, “You’re right man.” It was true, if they were too closed off, it would look suspicious and leave room for questions or even worse, assumptions. He was just relieved this guy didn’t ask questions about Jakes yet. He had a feeling there would be questions but they needed time to settle into this new normal before this guy started asking anything.

“So, Brass called about a case,” Mike changed the subject, “wanna help?”

“What’s the case?”

“Oh, you gonna love this man.”

**The next morning**

Chuck headed downstairs in search of breakfast, just as Johnny was waking up on the couch in the den. Looking over, he found Mike asleep on the opposite side of the couch. Nudging his leg with his foot, he tried waking him up.

“Yo, we fell asleep downstairs again,” he stretched, “your neck is gonna be fucked again homes,” Mike winced as he sat up, feeling the familiar pinch of a strained neck.

Charlie laughed, “You lovebirds have a good night?” as she rerouted to the den, her eyes falling on the open case files, “new case?”

Mike nodded, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, “Yeah, we started last night,” gesturing between him and Johnny, who was checking his phone.

“Together?” Again, Mike nodded.

“You guys up for going out for breakfast?” Johnny stood up, stretching his arms above his head, Mike was on the verge of saying something, when Johnny cut him off, “Yes your new bestie will be coming with, it was her idea.”

Charlie and Mike exchanged amused looks, just then Paige made her way into the house, hair wet and a slight sheen to her skin, “Morning.”

“You wanna go for breakfast?” Mike asked, “My new bestie invited us,” seeing the confused look on her face he elaborated, “Lucia.”

“Ah,” she smirked, glancing at Johnny who just rolled his eyes at Mike’s antics, “sure, give me a second, just wanna get out of these wet clothes.”

Thirty minutes later they were making their way out of the house when Briggs and Jeff walked down the stairs. Seeing the four of them all set for the day Paul’s brow furrowed in confusion. Since yesterday the four of them have been acting incredibly strange. It started the other night, when he got home, he could have sworn he heard a girl’s voice in Johnny’s room, but he chalked it off to his overly tired brain – they were very strict about the rule regarding upstairs. However, things were strange yesterday as well when he decided to go for a surf, but needed to wax his board and when he went to ask Johnny for some, the door was locked – he has never locked his door before. The weird behaviour was not only coming from Johnny, but the other three as well. He was more than surprised to see Mike, Charlie and Paige sitting together at their usual spot – over the last few weeks, Paige has kept to herself while the other three huddled together. What made it even stranger was the fact that, Johnny was nowhere to be seen.

Since the shooting at the funeral and after Johnny put two bullets in his leg, their relationship has completely deteriorated. Once he realised that he could not bend Mike the way he wanted to after his detox, he decided to focus on getting Johnny under his wing again. For a while it was just like old times, where he and John worked together and he could use him as a resource – it didn’t hurt that Johnny was ever eager to help, no matter who it was. However, he did notice the cracks in their relationship long before this whole situation with the Sarkissians. Since he started to take more control in the Solano case, Johnny started to be more independent and take risks and after he started working more with Mike, it seemed as though both younger men were slowly starting to see through him. That’s why as soon as he could utilize Johnny and remove him from Mike, he took the chance and asked for help with Soto Street – knowing fully that no matter how hot the heat got Johnny wouldn’t back down, especially when he mentioned pulling him out after the hazing.

Now everything was different, Johnny was colder towards him, disregarded his authority and was starting to play by his own rules. He knew that he blamed Paul for Jakes leaving and he couldn’t do anything to change his mind, however, Johnny needed to know who was in charge in Graceland and why exactly it was Paul.

“Where are you all off to?” he eyed the group, who were all dressed casually and weaponless.

“Work,” Charlie replied, “we all have open cases.”

“Last time I checked Johnny doesn’t,” he eyed the other man, “I thought maybe you and I could take Jeff around, show him the ropes.”

“Actually, I have an open case,” he replied, his face expressionless, “yeah Mikey and I are working on something.”

Briggs looked surprised, no one from higher up informed him of anything new, “Since when?”

“Since last night,” Mike replied, “the Brass called me and the two of us have the best track record of catching the bad guy,” he gestured between the two of them, “we decided to work it together.”

Briggs laughed a little, “Guys that was once.”

“Yeah but we did one hell of a job,” Johnny replied, raising an eyebrow, “now Carlito is all locked up in a cage.”

“That was all you brother,” Mike chimed in, they bumped fists without taking their eyes off Briggs.

It was then that Jeff who has been silent the entire time hopped into the conversation, “That was the Solano Cartel right,” he seemed to get a bit excited, “I followed that case,” this made Paige and Charlie exchange a look, “yeah, damn that seemed like one messed up family, I was a bit surprised that the daughter was never questioned though,” he clearly didn’t notice the tense look Johnny threw his way and continued “come on, you wanna tell me that girl didn’t have any involvement in her family’s business.”

It surprised everyone how calm Johnny was when he came to her defense, “She didn’t,” he rolled his shoulders, “that girl couldn’t choose her family, but she damn well chose to not get involved with their business.”

Jeff seemed to realise he overstepped somehow, “If you say so man,” he smiled sheepishly, “you were the undercover right?”

Johnny nodded, with that the conversation was over, “Mike and I are gonna head out,” he turned to leave.

Before they left Paul spoke, “I was thinking we could all meet up at the bar tonight, get Jeff familiar with the lay of the land, kind of thing.”

The two men nodded their heads and left, followed by Paige and Charlie, who excused themselves, also using open cases as an excuse. Making sure the remaining occupants of the house weren’t watching them, they got into Charlie’s car and headed in the same direction that Johnny and Mike drove.

“Well that was interesting,” Paige ran her fingers through her hair, “what are the odds that the new guy followed one of our cases?”

“That was hella weird,” Charlie agreed, “damn Johnny is probably losing his shit right now.”

With that being said, Paige whipped out her phone and called Mike, putting it on speaker, when he answered she asked, “So where are we heading and is Romeo next to you losing his shit.”

“Go to hell Paige,” Johnny’s voice floated into their space, “and there’s a place a few blocks from the hotel that serves breakfast food, we’ll get you there, it’s called The Bean Tree or some shit like that, seemed dope.”

“Got it,” she replied.

**Johnny’s car five minutes earlier**

His hands gripped the steering wheel so tight, Mike was waiting for it to snap, “Uh dude, you might wanna ease up on the wheel yeah.”

“Dude,” Johnny warned, “that was so weird,” his hands eased up on the wheel, “like this dude is way too into what we do,” it’s true, the entire night Jeff asked question after question about Graceland and old cases.

Mike looked out the window, “Hey man, I was just impressed that you didn’t punch him for insinuating that Lucia was involved with her family’s business.”

“Perks of being a Navy Seal man.”

“Things are about to get a whole lot interesting around here,” Mike sighed, before Johnny could reply, his phone rang – it was Paige. They decided to meet up somewhere a few blocks away from the hotel for breakfast, the two of them fetching Lucia on their way there.

Mike waited in the car while Johnny made his way up to Lucia’s room, he knocked, “Babe it’s me,” the door opening a few moments later.

“Hey,” she smiled as he cupped her face, kissing her good morning, she appeared ready to leave. He decided that he would speak to her about the new housemate later and somehow figure out her living arrangement in the process as well.

**The Bean Tree**

They found the girls at a table outside, they already ordered themselves coffee – they waved them over. The restaurant was fairly new, having been opened a few months ago and quickly developed a following from the locals. It offered a variety of breakfast foods, catering to the different ethnicities in the area.

“Hey guys,” Lucia smiled at them, as Johnny pulled out a seat for her.

“Morning,” Chuck smiled, then turned to Johnny, “look at you, playing the part of the gentleman.”

“Girl, I pull out your chair for you whenever we go out,” he sent her a look as he swiped her coffee across the table, “so don’t start.”

They fell into easy conversation and ordered food. Johnny was silent as he watched his family get to know Lucia. They learnt that she actually has had a chemical engineering degree and studied in the States. In turn she learnt about the people in Johnny’s life, including new things about him as well.

“I actually studied on the East Coast then moved back home,” she shrugged her shoulders, “my dad thought my expertise could be useful until I made it clear I didn’t want any part in their dealings.”

“Geez John,” Paige whistled, “who would have thought you’d land a genius,” Johnny threw a napkin at her.

“What is it pick on Johnny day today?”

“That’s everyday son,” Mike sipped his coffee, “hey Lucia you ever heard how Johnny over here got his nickname.”

“Dude!”

The conversation then shifted to what they all had planned for the day. Turns out Charlie was helping Paige with her case as Mike’s lead fell through. He and Johnny were still researching leads for their new case and Lucia was going apartment hunting – she had a cash cow for the time being, so she could find work some time later.

“Before I forget,” she reached into her purse, “sorry if this dampens the mood a bit, but I have the letters Jakes wrote everyone,” passing it around to the respective recipients – she held Briggs’ in her hand, “he wrote one for Briggs as well.”

“I’ll take it,” Johnny reached for it, but Lucia moved it out of his reach.

“I think I know you well enough to know you’ll read it, burn it and never tell this Briggs guy Jakes wrote him a letter,” she turned to Charlie and Mike, “Jakes mentioned that one of you would give it to him.”

Mike took it from her, looking over at Johnny and mouthed the word bestie, “I’ll give it to him.”

“Yeah I ain’t liking this,” gesturing between the two of them, “you two gotta stop,” the rest of the group laughed, “Mike’s too short for you and you both are too serious to be together,” he tilted his head at Lucia while looking at the others, “besides, she snores.”

That gained him an elbow to the side and Mike looking a bit exasperated, “Dude I’m the same height as you.”

“It’s cos you have hair man, shave that shit off and you’ll be like a couple inches shorter.”

“Maybe I should,” he ran his fingers through the hair, “then we could test who’s more desirable.”

“I will cut you.”

The girls just laughed at their antics, Charlie looked over at Johnny and sighed a little, “Babies, I don’t wanna dampen the mood either, but we gotta wrap this up soon,” she motioned between her and Paige, “we got a bad guy to arrest and you two,” she motioned between Mike and Johnny, “have leads to look for.”

They payed their bill and split into the two cars, Mike hopping in with the girls – he and Johnny were following up on a lead later today, so they still got time to do their own things for a while.

**Lucia’s hotel room**

“So,” Johnny leaned against the closed door, “can I talk to you real quick?”

She quirked her lip at the term, “The last time you asked me that, things escalated pretty fast,” her tone was playful as she flopped down on the couch, stretching her bare legs out in front of her, kicking her flips off.

His eyes followed the contour of her stomach that was on display from her t-shirt riding up, shaking his head he forced himself to focus, “So we got a new agent in last night,” he sat on the floor, his side resting against the couch, “he works for the DEA, some over eager dude, who seems to be very interested in Graceland,” he started drawing circles on her stomach, “he asks a lot of questions too,” he shook his head, “he also followed your brother’s case.”

“What?”

“Yeah said some shit about how he found it strange that you weren’t called to testify and whatnot,” he rocked his jaw, “almost decked him,” when he saw the disapproving look she gave him he continued, “but I didn’t, I was surprisingly restrained,” he slowly started pushing her t-shirt further up, “it was just weird.”

“So, what are we gonna do?” if this guy was asking questions, he would find it suspicious that Lucia Solano was roaming around Graceland and having sleepovers with the undercover that took her brother down.

“Honestly,” he moved to kneel over her, “I don’t give a shit,” before she could say anything, he went on, “we got each other, if he asks questions, he asks, if Briggs throws a bitch fit, he throws a bitch fit, but I ain’t giving this up,” he cupped her face, “after everything that’s happened, we found each other again.”

She smiled, running her finger along his lower lip, “Actually I found you,” he narrowed his eyes playfully, "but ok, you got me and I got you,” she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer to the point that he was laying on the couch between her legs.

Nuzzling her neck, he inhaled, “And I don’t want you to go look for some shitty ass place when you can stay with me,” his voice was a bit muffled, “or you can stay with my mom, she actually keeps asking about you,” he looked up at her, “yeah, she kept asking and then one day I just snapped and told her the truth.”

**Flashback – A week after Jakes left**

He was sitting by his mother’s dinning table, pushing the food around on his plate, he could feel his mother’s eyes on him. Without looking up he knew her brow was creased, and her hands were folded in front of her.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on with you?”

He just shook his head, “Nothin’.”

“Are you in trouble?”

He sighed, a bit frustrated, “Nah mama,” he set his fork down, “why you gotta think the worse of me?”

“I don’t, I’m just worried about you, Tony acted the same way before,” she stopped when she saw the look he gave her, “all I’m saying is, you were always open with me, before the Navy didn’t work out, these last few years, you’ve been so scarce and closed off, then I see you one night with a girl and I think finally something good is happening for him,” she took a deep breath, “now you sitting here, out of the blue, looking like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

Dropping his head, he breathed out, “You wanna know the truth ma?” with that he reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge, “I’m not a thug or some low-life, I work for the FBI as an agent,” and just like that he told his mother everything – even the part about Sid.

**End of flashback**

“It helped our relationship a lot actually,” he stroked her cheek, “the only thing she doesn’t approve of is me letting you go.”

Lucia laughed, her hands stroking his head, “Did you tell her it was my idea to let you go?”

“I did, she still didn’t buy it though.”

Resting his forehead against hers, they stayed like that for a few minutes before she started talking again, “Ok, fine, I wont go looking for an apartment,” he smirked, eyes still closed, “we’ll figure it out.”

“I’m glad you see it my way,” he dropped his head to place a kiss along her jawline, travelling down towards her neck, his hand moving down the length of her body, “because there is no way, I’m letting this go again,” his fingers undid the buttons of her shorts, his hand halting when he felt the absence of underwear, she bit her lip when he looked at her, lips slightly parted, “yeah you staying with me babe,” he slipped his hand further down her jeans, “I won’t be able to work if I know you on the other side of town, going all commando and shit.”

Her eyes closed when he found her clit and slowly started circling it, her hands trying to push the offensive shorts off her. He pulled them down her legs roughly, moving down, hooking his hands around her long legs, he hoisted them over his shoulders, kissing her inner thigh.

“Baby you have a lead to follow,” she looked over down at him as he sucked a mark into her inner thigh.

“Mikey is more than capable if I’m a few minutes late,” with that he lowered his head further and all she could do was bit the outside of her hand to stop her voice from travelling too much. Johnny was relentless, he sucked, kissed, bit and licked between her legs, enjoying the freedom of having more time and a bit more privacy. They never had the freedom to take their time like this, especially when all he wanted to do, was explore every part of her. Pushing two fingers into her, he looked up to watch her face scrunch up, turning his head, he gently bit the skin of her thigh, keeping the rhythm of his fingers and hitting the same spot.

“Johnny,” he knew she was almost ready, having been over the edge a few times now, “please,” lowering his mouth to latch onto her clit, he sucked, “it’s too much.”

Pulling away a bit, he nudged her clit with his nose, “Nah it ain’t babe, you doing so well,” drawing a circle with the tip of his tongue, “you can go one more round before I finish,” this time he drove his fingers in and curled them, “there is it baby,” her head was hanging over the armrest of the couch, her body shifting up, as though it was trying to get away from the overstimulation, but he held her in place.

When she came down from her high, he moved up, “You good babe?” she just laughed, too exhausted to say anything. She bit her lip when she felt him fumbling with his jeans, pulling himself out, she reached between them and guided him to her entrance, rubbing his head just over her slit, letting the wetness pool over his head. They moaned as he slid home, both knowing this wasn’t going to last long as he hoisted her legs over his hips and thrusted into her. Gripping his t-shirt, she pulled it over his head, her hands roaming down his bare shoulders and over his back. It only took a few more thrusts before they both fell apart.

“Shit,” he buried his face into her neck, sucking on the skin, “we gonna mess up this couch if I pull out now,” holding onto her a bit tighter, he flipped them over so he was sitting on the couch with her on his lap, this made it easier for him to get up and walk them to the bathroom - taking her discarded shorts with them - where he set her on the counter and got to cleaning them up.

Pulling his pants back up, he came to stand between her legs, “We’re going to the bar tonight,” pushing her hair out of her face, “you gonna join us?” she nodded before pulling him closer for a kiss, her arms locking around his neck, “we’ll get you there yeah.”

“Ok,” she gently pushed him, “now you really have to go babe.”

“Still got time babe,” he moved down to kiss along her neck, while his hands trailed up her t-shirt.

“Johnny,” she knew if he got her top off, they’d be going at it again in a matter of minutes, “you have a case.”

He groaned, “Fine, I’m going, I’ll see you tonight yeah,” kissing her one last time, he helped her off the bathroom counter.

**Graceland**

Mike was sitting with the case files, looking through the various intel they were given on this case, when he heard the front door open. Briggs and Jeff walked in, both carrying surf boards, they stopped when they saw him at the table alone.

“Hey man,” Jeff grinned as they placed their boards against the wall, “what you up to?”

“Working on a case,” he briefly looked at the two of them, before skimming through the file again.

“Where’s Johnny?” Briggs sat down across from him, “Thought he was working this one with you.”

“He’s running a few errands,” Mike sat back, moving the files subtly away from the two men sitting across from him, “we were planning on working on this later and follow up on some leads, but I had nothing else to do.”

Just then, the door opened again, and Johnny sauntered in, eyes glued to his phone, “Yo Levi, you ready to work?” putting his phone away, he nodded at the other two before taking a seat next to Mike, “See someone was being proactive,” he clapped Mike on the shoulder, “why didn’t you call me if you wanted to start earlier?”

Mike gave him a look, “Cos you had errands to run,” he kept his expression neutral as he looked over at his friend, having a pretty solid idea of what those errands were.

“Yeah I did,” smirking at the memory of earlier.

“I take it your errand entailed chasing skirt John?” Briggs looked over at him, “Pretty cold leaving your compadre here to do all the dirty work.”

“It ain’t even like that,” Johnny side eyed Paul, “besides I’m on time, not my fault Levi wanted to start early.”   
“Levi?” Jeff asked, slightly confused, Paul filled him in on the nickname system, “so what’s your nickname Johnny?”

“Johnny,” he simply replied.

“Then what’s your actual name?”

“Jonathan,” he said with a straight face, earning a perplexed looked from Jeff, “what, a brown person can’t have a white name?”

“It’s Joe,” Paul jumped in once again, seeing the discomfort cross Jeff’s face.

“Jose,” Mike responded at the same time.

Johnny was slightly impressed with Mike’s answer, “Damn son,” he looked at Jeff, “I’m just messing man, I go by Johnny most of the time.”

Jeff still looked a bit uneasy, so Mike decided to jump in, “So what has Briggs made you do so far?”

“Uh we went surfing,” he replied, “it was an experience.”

“Fun right?” Johnny looked up at him.

“Uh nah not really,” he chuckled, “I just need to get used to it I guess.”

Johnny and Mike looked over at Briggs, “Hey don’t judge, we all got used to it,” he paused, “except for Johnny over here, he was born with the sea in his veins.”

“Damn straight.”

Mike saw an opportunity to tease his friend again, “Don’t worry man, you’ll get used to it and start loving it,” he looked at Johnny, who was taking a gulp from his water bottle, “some say it’s even better than sex, ain’t that right John.”

Copious amounts of water spurted out of Johnny’s nose and mouth, “I regret those words,” he wiped his mouth, “nothing is better than sex, we can put those two activities on the same level if you want,” Mike raised an eyebrow, “anyway what else you guys been doing?”

Paul got up, heading upstairs to shower, while Jeff shrugged his shoulders, “He took me for tacos, they were pretty damn good and he sorta just showed me around,” he nodded, “I didn’t realise that you guys were so immersed into the area.”

“Yep, this place becomes part of your soul dude,” Mike replied.

“What about social interactions though and dating?”

Here Johnny answered, “We date, we have sex, we just don’t get attached,” he reached over for a file, “most importantly, no bringing anyone upstairs, under any circumstances and no guns downstairs under any circumstances.”

A few minutes later Jeff also made his way upstairs. Mike was so immersed in what he was reading, he didn’t see the file coming down on his head, “Better than sex? Really dude.”

“What, those were your words not mine,” he held his hands up, “I think imma tell my bestie that.”

“They will never find your body.”

Mike laughed, “I wasn’t like that when I first came here, right?”

“Nah bro,” Johnny paused, “you were ten times worse,” he dodged the pen that flew towards his head.

“Dick.”

For the rest of the afternoon they worked on their leads. This case was unique and would take time and a lot of patience. It wasn’t entirely new territory for them however, the fallout could be big if anything were to go wrong. Last night they decided that they wouldn’t let slip just yet what their assignment was, rather planning and figuring out the details before involving the others. Right now, they had exactly what they needed, an FBI agent with a killer practical score and an ex-Navy SEAL.

**Later that night, at the bar**

They were all gathered around a table, sipping their drinks. It was a bit strange being here together after so long, especially without DJ, but in order for everything to run smoothly, they had to put up somewhat of a front. So far it was going well, they were clueing Jeff up to the ropes of dating as an undercover. He seemed to be sucking up everything Paige was telling him.

“Wanna give it a go?” Johnny asked, a tiny bit eager to see the new guy fuck up a bit.

“Ok,” Jeff scanned the room for a bit.

“Just take a walk around man and then go up to the bar to order something and speak to one of the girls or guys, whichever floats your boat,” Briggs suggested.

So, off the new guy went. The rest of the group fell into a conversation, while Paul seemed to be focused ahead, his eye having caught someone familiar. Just then Johnny’s phone started ringing.

“Hey,” he answered, his face breaking into a smile, “ok cool, see you in a bit.”

Briggs continued to stare ahead his eyes focused on someone, while still looking ahead he directed a question at Johnny, “Who was that man?”

There was a pause and then Johnny sighed, “Paul, someone will be joining us tonight for drinks,” he clasped his hands together, Briggs turned to look at him.

“Is it Lucia, cos she just walked in?” Paul’s face was neutral.

“Guess the cats out the bag,” Chuck rested her arm of her backrest.

Briggs looked around the table, “Wait,” he then turned to Johnny, “how long has this been going on?”

Johnny cleared his throat, “A couple of days.”

“Has she been to Graceland?”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course, it does JT,” Briggs was getting worked up, “we have a new agent in the house, one who seems to have a keen interest in what we do and a keen interest in the Solano trial.”

Johnny just rocked his jaw and looked at the rest of the group, “Anyone have a problem with Lucia coming to Graceland?”

Paul looked at Mike, given his history with dating Abby, but was shocked to hear that he did not have a problem with this. Charlie and Paige shrugged their shoulders, Chuck spoke up, “She knows the truth Paul, it doesn’t really matter.”

“What we gonna tell the new guy then?”

“I really don’t care man,” Johnny leaned back in his chair.

“Uh, well it looks like Jeff may have just discovered her cos look,” Mike was looking at the bar, where it seemed as though Jeff was trying to talk up a very confused looking Lucia.

“You have gotta be kidding me,” Johnny groaned, before getting up and making his way to the bar as damage control, “good dammit new guy.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone. Firstly, I would like to check up on all the Black Readers who have been following this story - I stand with you as a POC, I am fighting for you and for everyone else who has been oppressed and crippled by this system, globally. Secondly to the allies out there who have been at the table or are new to the table, welcome and thank you. Thirdly to the people who are sliding into DMs, asking how they can be better, I have said this countless times and will say it again, it is not the job of a Black person nor POC to educate you on what we have been through or what the people who have come before us have been through - use your initiative and educate yourselves, then we can talk and discuss matters. Fourthly, to the ALM, we get it, all lives matter, they should but right now Black Lives/Life/Existence are and have been attacked for too God damn long. Finally to the ones who need to have those awkward conversations at home non black POC and White people, please remember, we can't be advocating for anti-racism nor be part of the Black Lives Matter movement if we do not tackle the racism in our homes and communities first. 
> 
> I was not going to post an update for a while, but with everything we've been doing, I needed to remove myself from the situation (there have been protest against police brutality in SA these past few days and even though I am currently working I have been participating virtually as best as I can, as have so many, both in SA and internationally) for a bit, just to re-energise, as I hope everyone is doing. We can't keep this change going if we burn out. This is not how I wanted the chapter to go but hopefully it makes sense. Hopefully this gives someone an escape for a few minutes before going back to surviving and fighting the good fight. This has been a taxing few months for all - stay safe, stay hydrated, stay peaceful and use sunscreen please. Remember, sign petitions, donate, advocate and participate.

**Chapter 3: We Gotchu**

**Classified Location, 2018**

He sat on the balcony overlooking the ocean, lost in his own thoughts. A few days ago, he was notified that one of their businesses were hit and a large sum of money was taken. Their employees couldn’t exactly tell them who it was, all they could tell him was that it wasn’t anyone who would be an issue. So, he decided to use his skills and track whoever screwed them, down, the only problem was, because it wasn’t anyone who could be a problem it was a bit more difficult to find them. For the last few days, he’s been tracking the money, using the system they set up – perks of being former federal agents – and what he found was beyond strange. Whoever stole their money was using it for the most trivial of things, a mortgage, a sports car and other random shit that no criminal mastermind would need. 

So lost in thought, he didn’t hear the sliding door open and Charlie taking a seat ne6xt to him, a blanket wrapped around her arms and two cups of coffee in her hands, “Hey sweety,” sitting down she handed him one, “wanna tell me why you’ve been all broody lately?”

Sipping his coffee, he shook his head, smiling slightly, “Lucia send you?”

“No, I decided to take one for the team,” they’ve all noticed in the past week, he’s been very stoic and kept to himself. In the last few years, he has been known to take on jobs alone, but he would always involve them, ask for their opinions, but whatever he was working on now was causing him to act distant. Thinking back to the conversation she had with the rest of the household this morning.

**Flashback**

They watched Johnny walk out of the house, not a word to anyone. Everyone was sitting in the kitchen having breakfast when he left. They all looked at Lucia for an answer. Shrugging her shoulders, she poured herself more coffee.

“I don’t know what’s been going on with him lately,” taking a sip she continued, “he’s been acting distant for the past few days and when I asked him what’s wrong, he lost his shit,” that was shocking – Lucia was usually the one, besides Chuck who could get anything out of him in a blink of an eye. Whatever was bothering him, must be really serious.

“I also asked him what’s going on,” Mike furrowed his brows, “he was having a very heated conversation with one of the boys yesterday and when I asked him what was going on, he nearly took my head off.”

“So, who’s gonna try today?” Paige asked, silently hoping it wasn’t her, because if it was, she’d end up punching him rather than talking to him.

“I’ll talk to him,” Chuck spoke up, “I’ll find out what’s going on and shake him down a bit.”

Lucia looked over at her and Charlie could tell she as worried. Over the last few years, she and Lucia have built a relationship around keeping Johnny from getting himself killed and preventing both him and Mike from doing anything irrational. Last night Lucia told her how he hasn’t been sleeping in their bed and seemed to be tracking bills on his laptop.

**End of the flashback**

“Someone stole from us,” he sighed, “I’ve been trying to track them down, but it hasn’t been easy,” he looked back out at the ocean, “whoever took the money is new to the game.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Simply shrugging his shoulders, “It was my idea to put the money there, my mistake, guess I wanted to just sort it out before things got out of hand.”

“Baby we’re a family,” Charlie looked at him, “we’re in this together, if you need help we’re here,” she set her cup down on the ledge and turned facing him fully, “for the last few years you’ve been taking care of all of us, working your ass off to protect us and give us a better life,” she paused, “but we’re here too, wanting to take care of you and help you,” she sighed, “someone stole from us, not just you, so it’s our problem.”

She continued when he said nothing, refusing to look at her, “We’re all part of this life, we all got skin in the game,” she turned his head towards her, “so stop being stubborn and tryna be a hero and let us help,” she gripped his jaw a bit, “and stop being all moody and biting everyone’s heads off for small things, especially your wife’s.”

“Right,” he looked a bit guilty, “she still pissed?”

“Nah,” Charlie shook her head, “worried yes.”

Walking into his bedroom, he heard laughter coming from the bathroom, he walked towards the sound. Leaning against the door frame he watched Lucia dodge the water that their son splashed at her, laughing as he did so. He watched the scene unfold for a bit longer – her hair was piled on top of her head, sleeves rolled up and specks of bubble bath splattered across her cheeks. Their son wasn’t planned but Johnny wouldn’t trade this for anything else in the world. Marcus pushed him to work harder and hopefully one day when all this was over, they’d all be able to live a more quiet and fearless life.

Bath time was a compulsory event, especially due to their son living with his grandmother most of the time. On their off days when they had their son, they spent it together – off days the entire house spent together - and if things came in the way during the day, bath time was non-negotiable. Due to the theft, he missed bath time these past few days and when Lucia called him out on it, he lost his shit.

He was brought back to the present when Marcus saw him, hands reaching out towards his father, the two-year-old not sensing the tension between his parents. Lucia didn’t look at him as he sat down beside her, his hands skimming the water, flicking droplets at Marcus.

“Hey pop,” he smiled down at his son, “what’s up?”

“Da,” finally getting attention from his father after so long, the toddler just laughed and splashed water all over his parents.

“Come on man,” Johnny laughed, reaching for a towel, “don’t wet mama.”

“It’s ok,” she sighed, picking up one of Marcus’ toy boats and placing it in the water, instantly catching his attention.

With his attention on his toy, Johnny turned towards her, “You still cross with me?” skooching closer to her, he placed his arm along the tub so he could push a rogue strand of hair out of her face.

“I wasn’t upset,” she didn’t look at him, so he tilted her face towards him, “worried about you, yes.”

“Sorry mama,” he rested his forehead against hers.

“We promised no secrets Jose,” she only used his birthname when she was serious.

“I know baby,” they stayed in that position for a few more moments before their son demanded their attention.

They put Marcus to bed, the toddler tuckered out from his day. She pulled him out of the adjoining nursery and into their bedroom, “You wanna tell me what’s going on Johnny,” her expression left no room for any funny business.

Sitting down on the bed, he rested his hands on his knees, before looking up at her, “Someone stole from us,” rubbing his head, “the boys said it’s no one who we should worry about.”

“But you’re still worrying,” she folded her arms, leaning against the closed nursery door, “why?”

“Because it could have been anyone,” he sighed, “it wasn’t anyone in this line of work either, I’ve been tracking the bill.”

He explained to her what he knew so far - that whoever stole from them were probably first timers, probably in a pinch and just chose a random store to target. She could tell that this was bothering him, especially because he could not pinpoint who it was. According to surveillance, it was a group of three people. Whoever these people were, they haven’t done this before, they seemed uncomfortable with their guns and were uncoordinated.

“It was only one store babe,” he rocked his jaw at her statement, let out an annoyed huff.

“For now, until they get a taste for it and decide to go back or hit another one of our places,” he stood up, walking towards her, “as soon as I know who it is, imma deal with it,” before she could protest he went on, “this hit may not have set us back, but another one could, we have too much riding on this, just a couple more jobs and then we’re free.”

She just looked at him, “Come on,” he cupped her chin, “when I told you we gonna live under the Southern Cross one day, I meant it, we can leave one day and never look back, all of us.”

“Johnny I don’t care about that right now,” he looked a bit taken back, “I care about the fact that you were so worried about this that you tried to hide it from the rest of us,” her hands gently gripped his shirt, “I trust you and I believe you babe when you say you want a better life for us and wanna leave, but you got to realise we’re all here, we’re in this together and all working towards the same goal.”

He looked at her, “I know you wanna keep your promise and I know you wanna make sure we’re safe and that we all are happy,” nudging his nose with hers she smiled lightly, “but when you gonna realise that we’re happy now and even if we never leave we’ll be fine as long as we’re together and a family?”

It was an ongoing discussion they’ve been having for the last few years. She would forever be grateful for what Johnny gave her, a whole family. Everyone in this house has a special place in her heart and everyone who works with them too. Growing up she never dreamt of having this and learning about everyone else’s backgrounds she knew most of them felt the same way. This was her family now and she would do anything for them because unlike the train wreck that was her biological family, these people would do the same for her.

“I know you wanna protect us,” she laughed, “but when you gonna get it into that idiotic brain of yours that we wanna protect you as well,” wrapping her arms around his neck, “I gotchu remember.”

“You got me,” he whispered before closing the gap.

**A park, 2020**

Sitting in Johnny’s car, Jakes, Paige and Lucia watched Beth Boland across the road situated herself at a picnic table, fluffing her hair a little and fixing her posture. Paige wouldn’t lie, this lady knew how to use her assets, watching her adjust the collar of her blouse. It was roughly after nine in the evening when they decided to make the drop. They couldn’t take the risk in broad daylight, so here they were, cooped into Johnny’s black Fortuner with blacked out windows, their tech gear all set up to run surveillance on the meet. 

“I’m not gonna lie, if I wasn’t taken and Beth Boland wasn’t such a thorn in our side, I’d do her,” Jakes admitted, both women sending him scathing looks, “come on guys, you two have to admit she’s attractive.”

“True,” Lucia ground out, “but she still shot my husband and even after everything is still trying to get into bed with him,” she looked at Jakes in the rearview mirror, “so the fact that she has a great rack, nice ass and decent curves doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“Aight,” Jakes nodded his head, he would give her that, “but even Johnny would-“

“Do you really wanna finish that sentence?” Paige jumped in, before they’d have to explain to Johnny why there was blood in his favourite car.

They watched as Beth sat, leaning forward slightly to amplify her cleavage a bit more. She was supposed to bring her sister and friend with – according to Johnny those two were more put together and level-headed than she was. However, she was alone and seemed ready for action. The group decided Johnny would meet her here and then Chuck and Mike would join them a few minutes later.

“Hey mama,” they watched Johnny walk up the table and take a seat across from her. Lucia clenched her jaw, it irked her how smooth he was and with how much ease he could charm this woman. She knew without a doubt she could trust him, but the burning hatred she felt towards Beth Boland made something ugly stir within her, something she tried to keep at bay most of the time. This woman almost ripped her family apart and if it came down to it, she would personally put a bullet in her.

“Hey,” Beth smiled as Johnny took a seat, “I thought this was a drop?”

“Oh, it is,” he smirked, “but we gonna do it a bit differently today,” looking around he asked her, “where your girls at?”

“They were busy,” she smiled, moving her hair out of her face, “so it’s just me.”

“Right,” he eyed her up and down, “so I’ve been thinking of your proposition and I think we can make a plan,” before she could say anything he went on, “but there’s certain things we gotta get straight.”

Just then Chuck and Mike walked over and sat down at the table. It was quite interesting to see Beth being caught off guard as Mike took a seat next to her and Charlie leaned over to place a kiss on Johnny’s cheek.

“Hey baby,” she smiled at him, before turning to Beth, enjoying the discomfort across her face.

“Hey mama,” Johnny smiled at her, before bumping fists with Mike across the table, “Mikey,” then looking at Beth, “Elizabeth these are my business partners.”

She seemed to piece things together, Chuck noticing this smiled at her, “Yeah,” she leaned forward, “we’re the other people you tried to screw over.”

“What’s going on?” Beth looked at him, as he rubbed his chin, his head tilted, seemingly relaxed as ever. He wouldn’t lie, this exchange was amusing, and it gave him some weird rush to see this woman frazzled.

“You see,” Mike jumped in, “as much as we appreciate having our workload lightened, we also need to be careful who we employ,” looking over at the two sitting opposite him for affirmation he continues, “and even though Johnny over here feels that you and your little pose are equip for the job, the rest of us wanted to get a few things straight before we all agreed on this plan.”

“Now,” Chuck took over before Beth had a chance to say anything, sounding as laid back as ever, “we trust Johnny’s judgement and respect his decisions,” the breezy look on Charlie’s face vanished, “but what we can’t trust is someone who decides to shoot their boss point blank not once but thrice, just because they weren’t happy with their cut,” she straightened up, “you see hon, this man here was doing you a favour by cutting you in after you stole from us because he saw potential that could’ve been beneficial to all parties, then he went the extra mile, being the generous soul that he is,” Mike rolled his eyes at that part, “and decided to teach you some tricks to get by because you were down on your luck and have a shitty ass husband who can’t keep it in his pants,” she raised an eyebrow, “and then you decide to repay him the way you did,” Beth was at a lost for words and just stared at Charlie who simply clicked her tongue.

“Here’s the thing Elizabeth,” Johnny finally spoke once Charlie had her say, “you still think this is some sorta game, you think we have this strange cat and mouse game going on, but you don’t seem to realise that this effects a lot of other people,” he gestured to his partners, “we respect the fact that you’re tryna get ahead, it’s tough times, we all gotta get creative am I right?”

Mike and Charlie agreed with him, “But you see your problem is, you wanna be a boss, you got the potential to be a boss, but you know nothing about loyalty or picking your battles mama.”

“I’ve learnt my lesson,” she finally responded, “you can trust me, we can be partners again,” she said that part a bit more gently.

Back in the car Paige rolled her eyes, “This lady is good.”

“Too bad they ain’t buying it,” Lucia responded.

“What do girls see in Johnny?” Jake wondered out loud, earning him a slap across the head from Lucia, “I’m serious, this lady seems to think she has a shot, even after she shot him and then there was that other girl –“

“Stop talking Jakes,” Paige jumped in again, before Lucia actually shot him. They continued to listen to the conversation.

“So here’s how this is gonna go,” Johnny stretched his arms out in front of him, “from now on you gonna keep an inventory list of all the products and jobs you do for us and based on how well your service is on each job, determines your cut,” running his tongue across his lower lip he glanced over at Mike, “and from now on one of my associates will be with me and your girls are to be at every other meeting as well.”

“We’ve done good work for you in the past,” Beth gave him a hard stare, “why the sudden need for babysitting?”

“That was before you decided to go on a power trip and get trigger happy,” Mike replied.

“Do we got a deal or not?”

Realising it was a losing battle and that it was her idea to offer up their services she nodded, “Fine.”

“Great,” Charlie stood up, smiling, “we’ll go get your goods,” with that she and Mike left, leaving her and Johnny alone.

“You know that family you always talkin bout?” his voice was hard, “Well, I got one too and when you put three slugs in me, you really pissed them off,” he laughed a bit, “so take this as a warning the next time you even consider doing something as stupid as that yeah, because the only thing standing between them and you is me sweetheart.”

She nodded, getting the message loud and clear, there was no getting rid of him now, so she might as well try to get back into his good books, leaning forward she furrowed her brow a bit, “I just want things to go back to the way it was,” she smiled, resting her chin on her fist, while her other hand trailed down her the collar of her dress, “I mean we did make a good team.” 

The group in the car, which now also consisted of Charlie and Mike who were getting the bags out of the trunk listened to the exchange. Lucia simply smiled before opening her door and walking around the back of the car.

“On second thought, I think I would actually like to meet Beth guys,” taking one of the bags, she made her way across the park.

“She doesn’t have a gun on her right?” Mike asked, a bit scared at the look in Lucia’s eyes.

“Hope not,” Chuck replied as they slowly followed her, curious to see this exchange.

Back at the picnic table, Johnny simply smirked at her, still astonished that after everything that went down, she still thought she could charm her way into his good books. Before he could shoot her down, he noticed her eyes fixed on something behind him. Turning around, his eyes softened a bit, seeing Lucia strolling towards them with one of the bags, with the other two lagging behind her.

“Hey mama,” he smiled at his wife, as she set the bag down on the table and sat down next to him, “didn’t think you’d come tonight.”

Beth noticed the tone he used was different to the other times he uttered the word ‘mama’, she watched the exchange. She noticed the softness in his eyes when Lucia walked towards them and the way his mouth twitched into small smile. 

“Thought I’d surprise you,” she winked at him before turning to face Beth. Lucia finally laid eyes on the woman who almost took her husband from her. By now Mike and Chuck were there as well with the other two bags.

“Three bags, plus all the documents you’ll need to make it across the border without any hassle,” Johnny explained.

Beth nodded, still eyeing Lucia, her eyes moving down, landing on the black carbon ring on her left hand, similar to the one Johnny has on his. Lucia saw the realization dawn on her face as Johnny went over the finer details and she sent Beth a look, almost confirming her assumption.

“Any questions?” Lucia asked once he was done, it was the first time she addressed Beth since sitting down, “No? Then I guess we’re done,” Mike and Charlie didn’t wait for her to get up and simply picked up the bags and walked towards her car.

Just as Beth was about to get up Lucia’s voice stopped her, “Remember what he said, the only thing standing between you and us, is him.”

“He made his point,” Beth replied, looking over at Johnny, who seemed to be as calm and collected as ever.

“Oh I know he did,” Lucia looked at her, “but I want to make sure you understand, if you try something like that again, it won’t be those two you’d need to worry about,” her eyes flickered to the where Chuck and Mike were walking, “because I’ll be the one who’d be putting a bullet between your eyes,” Johnny’s face creased a bit, looking at her, he hasn’t heard that tone in a long time.

“Lucia,” he warned.

“Just making sure she understands,” Lucia still didn’t take her eyes off Beth, “you can go back to your family now.”

Watching Beth leave, Lucia felt herself shaking with pent up rage, she let Johnny turn her towards him, “Hey hey,” his voice was husky and rough, “look at me baby,” gripping her chin gently, “I gotchu,” he kissed her forehead, “I gotchu,” he repeated.

By now Charlie and Mike were already back from loading everything into Beth’s car and Paige and Jakes made their way to the group. They all sat down at the picnic table in silence.

“You did good,” Charlie bumped shoulders with Lucia, “Mikey was scared you were gonna shoot her.”

“I was tempted to,” she let out a shaky laugh, leaning into Johnny’s chest.

**The next morning**

Lucia was tracing the contours of his scars, while he was scrolling through his phone, they decided to have a lazy morning after last night. They had no other jobs and Marcus and Chuck’s daughter were spending the rest of the week by Johnny’s mother. She was laying on her stomach in the crook of his arm, running her fingers along the contours of his tattoo and the ridges of his bullet scars, every few minutes she’d stretch to place kisses along them, sucking gently along his jawline. Now and then, he’d turn his head to kiss her, before focusing on his phone again. The sun was slowly starting to rise, slowly filling the room with light.

“If I wasn’t enjoying this so much,” he tightened the arm holding her, setting his phone down on the bedside table, “I’d say we should hit the waves.”

Scrunching her nose up at the thought of leaving the comfort of their warm bed, she shook her head, burying her face into his neck once again. Feeling warm and contempt they laid in silence, sharing kisses every so often. Johnny sighed, last night was draining for his family, he knew that – he knew how it felt to look at the person who’s hurt someone you loved and have to hold back, he’s done it on multiple occasions. One night Mike sat him down and told him exactly what happened the night Beth shot him and the days following that. Luckily for them they still had a lot of contacts and connections from the Graceland days who could help and were willing to help. He’s heard everyone’s account of that incident, besides Chuck and Lucia’s, neither one of them were ready to talk about what happened six months ago and he was not going to push them.

“I’m glad you came last night,” he squeezed her gently when he felt her tense up slightly.

“I had to,” she shifted slightly to look up at him, “that woman has to know what her actions brought upon her,” tracing the scar where the bullet hit his lung, she sighed, placing a kiss over it , “they wouldn’t let me into the warehouse when we heard the gun shots and saw her run out, Jakes told Charlie to keep me outside when we got to the door, Paige and Mike we already with you and were making calls for back-up.”

“I only saw you two days later,” he knew this from what Jakes told him, “they were scared that I was going to do something stupid,” this part was new, “I was so close to getting in the car to go look for that woman and finish her off,” she brought her hand to his cheek, “Mike talked me down though, made me realise that if I went after her, it would cause more problems and attract unwanted attention,” closing her eyes she continued, “the last time I felt that set on killing someone was the last time I saw Carlito,” it’s been years since she’s uttered her brother’s name.

“So after that, once you were stable, he drove me to the hospital and I sat with you the entire time,” he pulled her closer, “I’ve said it before Johnny, I don’t care about the money or the jobs or even leaving, all I care about is us and being together, being a family, so I need you to promise me, after this, we’re done with that woman.”

He sighed and nodded, he owed it to all of them. Sure he was the one that was shot but they were the ones who had to go through the ordeal of watching him fight through it, “I promise, after this entire Mexico job is done, we’re done completely with her, all of it,” he kissed her, “we’ll be set and ready to leave baby.”

“If you’re lying to me,” she said playfully, clutching his jaw.

“Then what, I’ll have another Solano to worry about?” he nudged her nose with his, “You’re a Tuturro baby, ain’t been a Solano for a while,” he laughed, kissing her forehead - they spent the rest of the morning wrapped up in each other, watching the sun fully rise over the ocean.

**In the kitchen**

Paige and Jakes were making French toast, while Courtney and Chuck were on the patio sipping coffee, enjoying the last few moments of summer. It was a calm morning, until the front door opened and two little bodies ran in, followed by Johnny’s mother and Mike. It was safe to say that in the last six years, Mrs. Tuturro became everyone’s mother and was usually the babysitter when jobs were being done. Since Johnny told her the truth about the FBI, she has been in the loop as well – doing what she can to protect her family. As was their tradition in the house to nickname everyone, she was called Ma by everyone, for obvious reasons.

Charlie smiled when she saw Francesca and Marcus make their way onto the patio, “Hey babies.”

“Mommy,” her daughter jumped onto her lap, “I missed you,” she wound her arms around her mother’s neck. Charlie kissed her head and hugged her back, looking over at Marcus who seemed to have already looking for his parents.

“Hey little man,” she called, “didn’t you miss me?” she laughed when he simply shrugged his shoulders before also climbing into her lap. It was a bit of a tight fit, but both toddlers seemed contempt for the time being.

Mike and Ma joined them, both holding mugs filled with coffee. The kids weren’t supposed to come back today, however Mike thought after their workload was lightened a bit since last night, one family day wouldn’t hurt anyone. When he picked up the kids and their grandmother, she told him that Marcus seemed a bit offish last night and, in the car, he was unusually quiet. However, the last week was the longest he has been away from his parents since before the shooting – Lucia wanting her son by her more often than not when Johnny was recovering.

“Where’s my mama and daddy?” Marcus, who was still on Chuck’s lap, while Francesca was already roaming around the patio.

“They’re still sleeping babe,” Chuck ran her fingers through his hair, noticing the boy’s face fall a little, “you enjoy your time with abuela?”

Smiling he nodded, Ma looked over at the two of them, “Tell Aunt Charlie what you made last night baby.”

“Pancakes,” the four year old, “just like daddy.”

“Oh yeah,” Charlie laughed a bit, noticing Johnny making his way outside, “were they good?”

Johnny smiled, having heard the conversation, and asked from the doorway, “So how come you didn’t bring daddy some today pop?”

“Daddy!” in a flash he was off her lap and running towards his father, who effortlessly caught him. Johnny walked over to his mother, kissing her on the cheek, before giving his full attention to his son, who started giving him a detailed retelling of the previous evening’s pancake making experience. Johnny listened intently and reacted when he should and when needed. It was always serial for everyone to see how he fit into the role of a father and how he juggled his work and fatherhood – it would astound people if they saw this side of the very intimidating criminal and ex-FBI agent.

“Where’s mama?” the four year old looked around for his mother.

“She’s still sleeping pop?” he replied, smiling at his son; after they watched the sunrise, she dosed off again, he watched her sleep for a few minutes before he heard the kids downstairs, “Wanna go wake her up?” standing up and moving back into the house.

When they were gone, Ma turned to Mike, “So you met her last night?” over the years, she stayed out of her son’s business, both now and when he still worked for the FBI. However, after he was shot, she seemed to be a lot more in the loop than she previously was.

Mike nodded, “Yeah we did,” he looked at her, her face hard, “even Lucia met her.”

This surprised her, the only other person who hated Beth Boland more than her was Johnny’s wife, “You’re kidding,” when the rest of the table which now consisted of Jakes and Paige as well confirmed this, her eyes widened in surprise, “and no one got shot?” when they confirmed this too, she sat back in her chair, “I’m impressed.”

To say that she disapproved that her son was still doing business with the woman who shot him, would be putting it lightly. As a mother she could not understand how this woman could just shoot another mother’s son point blank. How could it never have occurred to her that she was trying to steal someone’s child from them? This life her son chose, was never the life she wanted for him or for her eldest, but she understood what drove Johnny to this. It’s been a long few years and after Tony was killed, she decided she would rather be there for her son and make sure she could keep him safe in a way.

She remembered the day they found out Tony was gone.

**Flashback – 2016**

Johnny rushed into the house, having gotten a call from his mother. It was tricky for him to move around freely as of late, however he and his mother had a system for emergencies. So when he got her message, he managed to find his way across town to his childhood home. Locking the door behind him, he found the house in darkness, with a single light coming from the lounge. His mother was sitting on the couch, head in her hands and he could faintly see her shoulders shaking.

“Ma?” he walked over, kneeling in front of her, “what happened, are you hurt?” placing his hands on her shoulders.

She lifted her head, eyes bloodshot with tear marks down her cheeks, “It’s Tony,” she managed to get out. She didn’t have to say anything else before he knew, wrapping his arms around his mother. He and his brother were never close, never seeing eye to eye, it didn’t help that there was a ten year age gap between the two as well as two other brothers between them. That didn’t matter though, it still hurt. They haven’t seen Tony for almost a decade and as much as he tried to keep tabs on him, it’s been difficult.

“He’s gone,” she let him hold onto her. He sat and let his mother cry for the next thirty minutes, before something occurred to him.

“Who did it?” he looked at his mother.

“It was some rival gang,” his mother wiped her face, “that’s what they told me.”

He nodded, knowing that he couldn’t do anything about it now, he just held his mother. When things settled, he’d find out what happened and make whoever did this pay. Tony joined the ESL when he was young and wanted a sense of identity, but he wasn’t a senseless killer and was never intentionally violent. Even when Johnny was able to track him down and had tabs on him, he saw that his brother was respected and usually was the voice of reason amongst the men. It struck him, he was all his mother had left now – his other two brothers were on the other side of the country, one was working across the country and the other moved back to Mexico a few years ago.

“We’ll be fine Ma,” he held her tighter, “you still got me.”

She looked at him and smiled, “I’ll always have you.”

**End of flashback**

Johnny carried Marcus over his shoulder up the stairs, the little boy giggling as he hung from his father’s shoulders. Walking towards the bed, he placed Marcus down and watched as he cuddled up to his mother. Feeling movement on the bed Lucia woke up, smiling when she saw her son, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him closer. Marcus covered his mother’s face in kisses.

“Hey papi,” she laughed.

“I missed you,” he mumbled into her neck, his little arms wrapping around her as tightly as they could.

The bed dipped further as Johnny joined them. She smiled over at him, Marcus cuddled into the crook of her harm, having found his way under the blankets. Sitting up, she reached over and pulled something out of her night-stand drawer.

“I guess this is the best time to give the two of you this,” she held whatever she had in her hand out of sight, sitting up and moving Marcus onto her lap. Handing Johnny something wrapped in tissue paper. Watching the confusion on his face turn to surprise as he unwrapped it to reveal a pregnancy test.

“I went to the doctor last week,” she looked down at Marcus, the four year old looked a bit confused, “you gonna get a baby brother or sister papi,” taking his hand, she placed it on her still flat stomach. Johnny pulled them closer, kissing her on the head, “you happy?”

He squeezed her tightly, “Extremely baby,” laughing, he buried his face into her hair.

Marcus who has been silent for a while, eyes suddenly grew wide, “Mama did you eat a baby?” both adults burst out into fits of laughter.

**Classified Location, 2018**

Sitting behind his desk at the warehouse Mike mulled over the numbers in front of him. There were discrepancies present that he could not figure out. He ran countless tracking systems and codes to rectify them but nothing added up, there was over three-hundred grand missing.

“It’s gone,” Johnny’s voice came from the open doorway, he was leaning against the doorframe, his gun hanging loosely in his hand.

“What do you mean it’s gone?” Mike hasn’t spoken to him since he bit his head off yesterday.

“We got robbed,” pushing himself off the doorframe, he came to sit opposite Mike, “I’ve been tracking the cash independently for a week now.”

“Why am I only hearing about this now John?” Mike narrowed his eyes, looking at his partner, “Hold up, is this the reason for your shit mood lately.”

Johnny just rolled his eyes, “You know for an ex-FBI agent you’re really slow with the uptake bro,” he raised an eyebrow, “these fools who took our money, they just some suburban bitches who got lucky, I’ll handle it.”

“Well for a bunch of suburban bitches they took quite a bit of money,” Mike huffed, “what are they even doing with it?”

“Buying cars, paying mortgages and other random shit,” he chuckled, “seems these ladies were in need of a quick fix.”

Johnny sat and explained what he told Chuck and Lucia the previous night. They came to an agreement that he would handle the issue but they all would know what was going on. After speaking to both Chuck and Lucia last night Johnny realised that he was acting irrationally and it was unfair of him to take his frustrations out on the group, when they did not even know what was going on. He and Mike sat for the rest day working on other more pressing matters. These ladies weren’t going to be a problem.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is much appreciated. This will be centered around Mike and Johnny - I think that their relationship as colleagues and friends had so much potential. This is somewhat new territory for me as I have never written multiple timelines before, but thought it would be a good exercise. This chapter serves as a bit of an introduction and just to create the setting a bit. I have ideas for other AU using the Graceland characters as inspiration - I just think they are such unique and diverse characters. Hopefully this will also serve as a good stress reliever for those of us who are working in various essential services as well as those who are feeling the effects of having to be at home in isolation for such a long time. Remember, as long as we have imagination and stories, we are not truly locked away - I don't know if I made that up or if it's an actual quote. 
> 
> Stay tuned! 
> 
> I might also make story boards for this story so check tumblr in the future, I might just test out my skills, who knows.


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